Yet Love is Sweeter
by This Is Da Vinci Speaking
Summary: Lilly hasn't seen her best friend in several years. What happens when she meets him again at a place she least expected? Takes place after 2005 movie.[COMPLETE]
1. Reunion

She sighed as she stared sadly at the factory on the other side of the town. It was starting to look new again; headlines on every newspaper in town declared, "**Wonka Factory Revived Thanks To Bucket!**" as if the factory hadn't been working at all the whole time it had been in a shadow.

Lilly Redwood stuck her hands in her coat pockets, blinking away the falling snow from her eyelashes. Lots of unhappy memories were brought on by the curling smoke of the factory; by the freakishly unwelcoming iron gate in front of it. Memories of Lilly's lost childhood. She had never forgotten her best friend.

Even though, mockingly, he literally lived ten minutes away from her.

Lilly frowned at this thought. She was rather peeved all of a sudden at the fact that she lived only a few minutes away. But she lost all anger when she realized that she'd never even seen him outside the factory. At least, _she _hasn't.

This almost brought an onslaught of tears, but Lilly turned away from the factory and quickly walked towards the florist's shop. She knew that smelling the flower she was named after would make her feel a little better.

And as oddly close to getting high as that sounded, Lilly also knew that she had never really been _happy_ since Willy left her. They were very close, and he left a hole in Lilly's heart. It seemed he had forgotten who she was.

Lilly walked into the shop and forced a smile at George, the clerk. "It's a rather gloomy afternoon, isn't it?" she said conversationally.

George smiled back and nodded, but then he just kind of stared at Lilly. They both stopped and looked out the wide store windows.

There were two Wonka trucks driving past the store towards the candy store.

"And it just got gloomier," Lilly muttered, turning away from the window. She sat down on a bench beside the lilies and sighed heavily, resting her forehead on her hands.

George looked at her, his face etched with sympathy. "The thing I've learned is that you have to let things go, no matter how painful it may be. Some things are better for your health."

Lilly looked up a little and leaned over to smell the lilies. She took in the sweet smell briefly, but then felt another onslaught of tears headed her way. "I just miss him."

George looked about the nearly empty store, his gaze lingering on one other customer. The stranger was over in the rose section, and he was staring oddly at the dead roses.

George ignored him. "You never exactly told me who this person you've been talking about is, Miss Redwood. I'm rather curious."

Lilly sighed and shrugged, taking a lily and leaning back on the bench. "Just…a friend I had when I was a young girl."

There was a moment's silence, and then a different voice rang in.

"I don't like roses. The smell usually gives me a headache."

George frowned over at the stranger. "Then…why are you engulfing yourself in roses?"

The customer looked up at George, but his eyes couldn't be seen due to the fact that he was wearing very large goggle-like sunglasses. He was also wearing a top hat.

"Because," he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It would be silly if I were to say such a thing if I were over in the _marigold_ section, now, wouldn't it?"

Lilly frowned, but George spoke up first. "Did you need help with anything, sir?"

The customer gave George a quiet smile, bearing pearly white, freakishly straight teeth. "No thanks. Although I might be interested in buying a few of those lilies over there."

Lilly blinked. "These?"

The man nodded. "I rather like those flowers, and they're the only kind I do like."

This made Lilly's heart jump into her throat. She was being paranoid, but she remembered when she and Willy were kids, he said the lily was the only flower he did like.

But there was no way possible this strange man could be Lilly's long-lost childhood friend.

George told him how much the flowers would cost, and then he teasingly asked Lilly if she would mind giving away her prized possessions.

"No," Lilly said quietly.

But after the man paid for the flowers, he sat on the bench next to Lilly. He kept his hands on a strange-looking walking staff, and he looked at the ceiling.

"Why are you so sad, ma'am?"

"No reason," she sighed as George went to the back room to retrieve something of unknown identity. But Lilly found herself confiding in this total stranger.

"I miss a really good childhood friend of mine. I haven't seen him in several years." She waved her hand vaguely. "He went off to become a famous candy maker. He's got his name written on almost every piece of candy in almost every single candy store in the world now. I'm afraid he's forgotten who I am."

The stranger looked at her, but stayed silent.

"I'm not sure what hurts most," Lilly continued. "To never see a best friend again, or to have the best friend completely forget who you are."

The stranger finally spoke. "Well…."

"Lilly."

He raised his eyebrows. "Well, Lilly, I'm sure your friend hasn't forgotten who you are. You seem too nice of a young lady to have been forgotten."

Lilly turned her head to stare oddly at the man.

He continued. "This friend of yours," he mused, looking away from Lilly and tapping the walking staff on the ground once. "You said he is a candy maker. Mr. Wonka, I assume?"

Lilly nodded, her eyes starting to fill with tears. The two were silent for the next minute, and Lilly failed to notice that George was still in the back room.

The man picked up conversation again. "I know a poem that I think will cheer you up, would you like to hear it?"

Lilly—who was staring at her lap and trying to will the tears back into her eyes—didn't say a word, but she didn't give any sign of refusal.

"Alright," he said, "it goes like this: 'Lilly Lonka, next to Willy Wonka, wants to be famous, she's gotta be a waitress, because that's how the famous get into the pages.' It's something I came up with when I was a small boy. It's not that funny, but it caused a few accidents."

Lilly almost died of shock.

The stranger slowly looked at her, smiling, and he found himself staring into the wide eyes of the woman sitting next to him.

"Like I said, I'm sure your friend hasn't forgotten who you are." Then he frowned questioningly. "What did you say your name was?"

Lilly couldn't stop staring. That poem was told to her by Willy, and it _had_ caused at least one accident; Lilly had fallen out of the tree they were sitting in and got a nasty scrape on her shoulder, just because she was laughing so hard at the pure stupidity of the poem.

"You're…you're Willy, aren't you?" she asked, her voice betraying her and cracking at the name. She was in pure shock.

"Let us talk outside of this store; the fumes are sort of giving me a headache."

Lilly sprang to her feet and Willy stood up, calling over his shoulder, "Thank you very much, Mr. Barnes!"

"You're welcome, Wonka!" George called back from the back room. "Where _are_ those blasted bug sprays!"

Lilly turned around and stared at the back room door, not paying attention to where she was going, and ran right into the door to the shop.

Willy turned around and watched Lilly. "I've actually done that quite a few times myself." He walked back into the shop and helped Lilly up.

When Lilly placed her hand in Willy's purple-glove-clad one, she looked up and into his eyes…at least the sunglasses. She still couldn't believe this was him.

"You've changed," she whispered, standing up, not completely finding her voice.

"Not as much as you have, my friend," Willy said, and he became oddly still. He was obviously looking her over a few times.

Lilly placed her hands in her pockets and looked at the factory over Willy's shoulder. "You've come out of your…cage."

"I've always been out of my cage," Willy said with a flourish of his hands, having snapped out of a reverie of some sort. "Well, since I met Charlie, I've been out of my cage. Have you heard of him? Little Charlie Bucket?"

Willy had turned to walk towards the factory, and Lilly followed him out of instinct. "I…yes, I've heard of him."

Willy turned to look at her, not stopping his ever-so-slightly limping stride. "I am personally insulted that you thought I had forgotten who you were. I thought about you every day! You were a very good friend of mine, Lilly. People don't exactly forget best friends." He grinned and giggled. "At least, not when they graciously spend a fraction of their allowance on boxes of chocolates for the other."

Lilly smiled, remembering very well when Willy became addicted to the drug that chocolate was. She had, indeed, spent a very small fraction of her allowance money on the candy for him—he couldn't buy it himself, or his overly dental-hygienic father would've noticed.

"But you hadn't just been my candy-buyer, no; you were very kind to me in all sorts of ways." He tapped his chin with his other hand. "You were my only friend, because none of the other kids would talk to me since I had that nasty metal stuff all around my face…." He looked at her again. "I've never met anyone as sweet as you had been to me, Lilly."

Lilly tried hard not to, but she soon found herself blushing more and more with every compliment Willy gave her. Then they arrived at the factory.

"Well," Willy said, leaning on his walking staff and looking up at the factory. "You have two options. You can both a) come inside with me and visit, or b) leave and be a mean person." He smiled at her.

Lilly was startled out of her reverie at the question. "Oh. Erm…I'll…I've really…."

"Come on in," Willy said helpfully, tapping the gate with the staff. It opened slowly, and as soon as it got wide enough for a human to fit through, Willy went into the large courtyard in front of the building. Lilly followed, still reeling over the fact that she was actually talking to her long-lost best friend. "The Oompa-Loompas won't bite."

"I've heard of those…the tabloids have said you have those working for you…."

"They're not just my workers, Lilly," Willy chimed, approaching the doors to the factory. "But they're also my friends."

Once Willy opened the doors, however, Lilly did something without thinking.

She sprang forward, tapped Willy on the shoulder, and when he turned around, she engulfed him in a tearful hug. Willy started to laugh, and they both fell over inside the factory.


	2. Not Forgotten

**OOOH I got two reviews! Tank yous, guys! Your wish...is my command.**

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"You see," Willy told Lilly, walking into the giant candy field, "the chocolate-fall mixes up the chocolate. It's the only one in the world. No other candy factory has one. And those tubes up there—" he pointed to the giant thing floating in the air, wielding three lethal-looking vacuum tubes, "—suck up the chocolate and send it to the fudge room."

When he looked at Lilly, his goggle-things finally off, she was smiling at him, listening intently to what he was saying. He gave her a small smile and looked back, continuing his tour. He had gotten to the edge of the Chocolate River when he stopped.

"You can eat anything here."

Lilly blinked and looked around, almost startled at this concept. "What do you mean by 'anything,' exactly?"

"For instance," Willy said, bending down and plucking a single blade of grass from the ground. He handed it to Lilly, who looked a bit flustered. "Try it."

"But…it's grass."

"_Eat-able_ grass, my friend." Willy grinned, obviously proud of himself. "I wouldn't tell you to eat a blade of grass if you couldn't eat it, now, would I?"

Lilly smirked, thinking back on their childhood days. She specifically remembered when Willy dared her one day to take a handful of grass and eat it all. "I'm not so sure about that—"

"I knew you'd bring that up," Willy said hastily, snatching the blade of grass and eating it himself. "See? No symptoms of illness or shock and paralysis. Now _you_ try it."

Lilly let out a stifled giggle and plucked two blades of grass from the ground. She ate them both at once.

Willy looked impressed. "And she eats two…at the same time." He pointed to a patch of flowers in the distance. "Come over here, I want to show you something."

Lilly nodded, nabbing a few more blades of grass, and followed him. When they arrived at the bunch of flowers, Lilly nearly choked on the grass she was eating.

They were candy lilies.

Willy turned to beam at her, looking positively ecstatic. "I told you, I haven't forgotten you, Lilly. I remembered that the lily was your favorite flower, as is mine. That was one of the many things we had in common."

Lilly swallowed and looked gratefully at Willy. "Thank you," she murmured.

Willy nodded and plucked a candy lily out of the ground. "Here you go. It's white chocolate. The pollen-maker yellow thing is actually a lemon lollipop. The stem is green-colored licorice."

Lilly gaped in awe at the lily in her hand. "You're a genius," she said, "and they're all my favorite type of candy…."

Once again Willy nodded, motioning for Lilly to follow him. "Now you've got that song stuck in my head, the one I made for you."

They both recited it at the same time.

Willy laughed, making sure they both walked very slowly. "_Are_ you famous, by the way?"

Lilly winced, taking a bite of the white chocolate off the lily. "Not…exactly. I'm a post person. I…deliver mail and packages every other day." She swallowed. "I'm considered famous to those who receive urgent packages on time because of me, though!" She shrugged sheepishly. "I guess our roles were reversed."

Willy suddenly stopped walking. "Hold on a second," he said, and Lilly stopped walking, too. She looked at him questioningly, holding the lily in her hand like a bride to a bouquet of flowers. "I want to make sure of something."

Somehow Lilly knew what he wanted to make sure of; she nodded her consent for him to check.

Willy slowly walked to stand behind Lilly, and she used one hand to gather her hair to her left side. Willy carefully lowered the sleeve off of her right shoulder and let out a small gasp.

"It's still there after all these years?"

Lilly nodded. "That was a pretty nasty scrape."

Willy ran his fingers over the scar once, obviously thrown into another flashback. "There are things to get rid of scars, you know."

Lilly—who had closed her eyes at the contact—shook her head vaguely. "I didn't want to get rid of it…it was one of the only things left that I had to remind me of you."

She couldn't see him, but Willy smiled at this comment. "There were more?"

Lilly was really blushing this time. "Well…I kept a few of the wrappers off of your candy…just two. One off the chocolate bar…and one off of the gum."

Willy placed his hands on her shoulders. "I kept lilies to remind myself of _you_." He abruptly took his hands off her shoulders and started walking towards a large, purple, seahorse-shaped Viking-style boat. "If you come with me this way, we'll journey to the Invention Room…."

Lilly watched after him for a minute, then lifted the sleeve back onto her shoulder and followed him, smiling to herself. She hadn't been forgotten after all.


	3. Best Friend

YAY! You guys really love me! Or...the story, at least. nervous grin

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"Okay, this thing looks lethal," Lilly declared, cautiously stepping into the boat. Willy followed her. "Do you have a license?"

Willy frowned as he helped Lilly into a seat at the back. "A license for what?"

Lilly blanched. "I'll take that as a no…."

Willy smirked. "I don't drive this thing, by the way." He gestured towards the front. "They do."

Lilly turned and saw dozens of tiny men in seats at the front, holding oars in their hands and looking determined. They appeared to be waiting for Willy to tell them to do something.

As Willy sat down beside her, Lilly asked, "Are they the Oompa-Loompas?"

Willy nodded briskly and clapped once. "That they are. Forward!"

The boat started to move with a small lurch, and Lilly found herself gripping Willy's arm very tightly.

"Oh dear," Willy mused aloud, "I _did_ forget that you don't like boats…."

Before he could say another word, however, they had already headed down a series of drops and whirls, and when they came to level height, Lilly had fallen over and across Willy's lap, her eyes shut tightly.

"Er," Willy said, poking the side of Lilly's head, "I'm very sorry."

Lilly opened her eyes and looked straight up at him. "It's…not a problem. Just…make sure we take the _elevator_ that I saw on the way down here instead of _this_ next time, alright!"

Willy looked as if he could slap himself. "I keep forgetting about that!"

Lilly sat up, thankful that the dark light hid her reddening face. "I was wrong," she said in mock disgust. "You _haven't_ changed."

Willy kept looking ahead, but he grinned ever-so-slightly, and not to mention smugly. "You really haven't forgotten anything about us, have you?"

"How can one forget, exactly, a time when a girl's best friend makes her run around the entire town looking for a small little object such as a chain when the store she was looking for was right next door, hmm?"

Willy burst out into laughter. "But it was _funny_!"

"Not to me, it wasn't. It was a small chain, and it was to hold up the little charm I had given you. I bet you didn't even keep that thing."

Willy looked at her directly. "On the contrary." He reached into his collar and brought out a thin, gold chain, and on that chain held a small heart with the words, "Best Friend" engraved into it in fancy letters.

Lilly stared at the charm, then looked up and right into Willy's eyes. "You…kept it."

Willy nodded and said quietly, "You really didn't think you meant anything to me, did you? And…from the looks of it…you still don't."

Lilly had vaguely noticed the boat had stopped moving, but she was too distracted. She felt the depression of the past several years lift off her shoulders as if someone—Willy, to be specific—had taken the huge weight off her shoulders.

She laughed for the first time in years.


	4. Confessions

**Holy...I'm getting a LOT of reviews! O.o Thank you lots! And...the next chapter is right here. You'll be getting a bonus chapter soon! (This is my personal favorite chapter. One of them, anyway...you'll be informed when it is my FAVORITE chapter.)

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"Hurry up," Willy said, taking Lilly's hand and helping her out of the boat. "I don't want you to miss this."

Lilly smiled and laughed again. "Willy…I don't think anything in this factory is going anywhere anytime soon."

"That was a lot of 'any's," Willy said over his shoulder, unconscious to the fact that he kept holding on to Lilly's hand.

They both walked into the Invention Room, and Willy let go of Lilly's hand. He turned to her and smiled.

Lilly walked a little further into the room and looked around, then back at Willy.

"Oddly…" she murmured, "I'm not impressed."

Willy stood completely still, then slowly raised one eyebrow a little way.

"And I'm not impressed," Lilly continued, walking back over to Willy, still looking around the room, "because somehow…." She crossed her arms. "Everything looks the same..." She stopped directly in front of Willy and looked at him. "Because I'm with you again."

Willy looked down at her, his expression unchanging. They stood there for what seemed like several minutes, just looking each other in the eye. Both of them were afraid they would stand there for eternity, not able to come up with anything to say to each other. Then Lilly came out with the Gospel truth:

"Willy, I've been in love with you since I met you all those years ago." She had said it, and she couldn't…STOP saying it. "We were only children, so back then it was a little crush. When you left me because of your father, I was devastated, and I almost tore myself apart." She started to shake now, just a little. "Every day as I grew older, I missed you more. Every hour that I was away from you; every second I didn't see you, I thought I would die of loneliness. I loved you, and having you be away from me hurt more than anything I can ever explain. So all I want you to do now is hold me, and I'll be alright, I promise."

Willy looked a tad bit overwhelmed. "One thing…I've been conflicting with myself about," he nearly choked on his words, "is whether or not I really wanted any human being to say that to me."

Lilly closed her eyes….

"But to hear _you_ say it…somehow…doesn't make it as frightening of a concept…to be loved."

Lilly opened her eyes slowly and looked at Willy again. "I know you can't love me back…."

"Why can't I?"

"Because you don't."

"Who said that?"

"The fact that you're not saying otherwise!"

"That doesn't mean I don't love you."

"_Do_ you?"

"If you force an answer out of me, I assure you it won't be the truth."

"I'm not forcing an answer out of _any_body!"

"I don't know _how_ to love somebody!"

Lilly stared at Willy, her eyes wide and her mouth partially agape. Her arms had fallen limp at her sides, and she lost her posture. This was news, alright.

"How can you not know how to love a person?"

Willy looked very anxious all of a sudden, tapping the walking staff against the ground. He looked all around him, biting his bottom lip. "I only said that to distract you."

Lilly raised an eyebrow. "Distract me from what?"

Willy looked at her again, concern in his eyes now. "Distract you from the fact that you're crying."

Lilly blinked, and realized he was right. Tears were slowly streaming down her cheeks, and she also realized that was why Willy looked anxious. As she remembered from when they were kids, he never really seemed comfortable around crying people. He would fidget, and finally find a way to disappear.

But Willy didn't disappear.

"I just _hate_ it when people cry," he said quietly. He closed his eyes and muttered again, "I can't stand it."

Lilly took in a deep, watery breath and slowly reached her hands out and held Willy's face in her hands. When he opened his eyes, Lilly whispered, "I just wanted you to know how I felt about you, that's all…."

Willy looked ashamed suddenly. "Did I hurt your feelings?"

Lilly nodded a little. "Yeah. A little bit."

Willy looked down. "I'm sorry, Lilly. How can I help you feel better?"

Lilly slowly let go of Willy and stepped back a few feet. "You can't…I've…."

Willy suddenly seemed to have realized exactly what he'd just done, and he seemed to have really disliked what he'd just done, because just as suddenly, he grabbed Lilly's arm, took his hat off, and kissed her full on the lips.

Lilly closed her eyes and let the shock of this pass over her head as Willy wrapped his arms tightly around her—a gesture that Lilly found very un-Wonka-like. Nevertheless, when the kiss was over, Lilly found herself in a very warm embrace with Willy. She rested her chin on his shoulder and placed her hands on his back, right below his shoulder blades. They stood like that for several minutes.

"You've always been a part of me," Willy said in a soft whisper. "You've always been my first and only friend, and you always will be my first and only friend."

Lilly suddenly smiled. "What about the Oompa-Loompas?"

Willy tightened the hug, smiling, too. "I would consider them a different_ kind_ of friends than you, my dear."

The slyness of his voice was not even attempted to be hidden. And at this, Lilly's grin got wider. "Are you actually saying what I think you're saying, Willy Wonka?"

"Maybe I am."

Lilly snickered. "You're a twisted man, Wonka."

"You know it."


	5. Out With the Squirrels

**My memory isn't so good...anyway, thank you so much for your nice reviews. I appreciate it a lot! The next chapter is right here. This is another one of my favorite chapters.**

**-This Is Da Vinci Speaking

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"So," Lilly said, swinging her legs back and forth, sitting with Willy on a balcony overlooking a round room. "What ever happened to Charlie Bucket, anyway?"

Willy looked around at the empty room, frowning slightly. "He and his family had to move to Hertfordshire. I'm not quite sure why. They never really cleared that up."

Lilly looked around the room as well, then she sighed. "I wondered why it seemed a little empty in here." Then she frowned. "Is there supposed to be someone in this room?"

Willy grinned and clapped. "Out with the squirrels!"

Lilly's eyes widened as hundreds of squirrels came out of a small door against the wall, each of them running and sitting on a blue stool in front of a sink of walnuts. "Oh my god," Lilly gasped. "I _love_ squirrels!"

Willy frowned a bit, but he still had a hint of a grin. "Really?"

Lilly looked at him over the commotion the squirrels were making. When Willy winked at her, she got up and started climbing down the stairs and into the round room with the squirrels.

"Be careful," Willy called out to her, leisurely standing up. "You don't want a hundred squirrels to attack you, do you?"

"Only if you were here to rescue me."

Willy grinned and watched Lilly as she walked around, looking at how each squirrel went about at ing open each walnut. "What if I wasn't here to rescue you, Lilly?"

She stopped at a squirrel listening in on a particularly disfigured walnut. She waited until it threw the nut over its shoulder and watched the nut slide over and down a huge hole in the floor. Then she looked at Willy. "Then I couldn't…."

Willy looked at her for a moment, and he was about to say something when suddenly the lights in the room went deep red.

"Oh dear," Willy said, looking up at the lights. "You might want to come over here with me."

Lilly made her way quickly to Willy, who gave her his hand and helped her onto the balcony. "What's going on?"

"No need to be alarmed, my dear, just a slight backup problem." He brushed some lint off his coat. "Do you want to come with me to see what the problem is?"

Lilly smiled. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"I suppose you could take it that way." He held out his arm to her. "Or we could just…find out what the problem is, _then_ go on a 'date,' as you put it."

Lilly obliged and hooked her arm through his, and as they walked away from the squirrel room, she kissed him on the cheek.

Willy grinned and pretended to blush. "Now, Miss Redwood…you don't want to do something like that in front of the children."

Lilly looked around. "What children?"

Willy stopped walking and looked at a spot to his right. "Children?"

Lilly raised an eyebrow and watched Willy as he slowly slipped into a flashback. He was like this for several seconds.

"Willy," Lilly said quietly, tapping him on the chest with the palm of her hand. "Willy…are you alright?"

Willy suddenly blinked and looked at Lilly. "Yeah. I…had another flashback." Then he seemed to realize something and he looked down at Lilly's hand, which was still sort of shoving him in the chest. He looked at her and raised an eyebrow a little ways. "When you're done molesting me…we'll figure out what the problem is." But he showed no attempt to hide amusement.

Lilly blushed and stepped back, allowing Willy to go ahead of her. When his back was completely to her, and he was a few feet away, Lilly murmured, "Yes, you're right. We should save that for later."

There was no doubt that Willy had heard this, because he stopped walking so fast that his hat actually went flying off his head.

There was a very short silence in which Lilly tried not to laugh. Willy—his back still to Lilly—cleared his throat and went to pick up his hat. "I tripped," he mumbled, then motioned for Lilly to follow him.

They both headed to a room which Lilly knew was supposed to be shut and locked…because it had several locks and a vault opener and a little smiley face sticker on it and a bumper sticker that said, "**Open this without warning and you DIE! Have a nice day, love, Willy Wonka.**"

Lilly laughed, and Willy looked at her. "You laugh now, but try being in there when you haven't given a warning."

Lilly swallowed.

Something weird happened just then. When Willy tapped the door with his staff, nothing happened. Then he did this weird thing where he jerked forward a little bit, frowning at the door, and he tapped it once with his finger. He whirled around to face Lilly, grinning nervously.

"I think we found our problem, Lilly."

Lilly crossed her arms and covered her mouth, frowning. "It's jammed?"

Willy tapped on the door with the staff again. "You know, I'm not sure it's jammed…." He tapped it a little harder. "…as much as it is completely stuck with almost no hope of it ever opening again." He then resorted to pounding mercilessly on the door with his fists.

Lilly looked around them, realizing that the entire factory was submerged in a deep red light. She looked at Willy. "What do you think is going on?"

Willy looked as if he were thinking for a long time, then he spoke. "I think the teleporter might've short-circuited."

Lilly blinked. "The…_what_?"

"The teleporter," Willy said again, cheerfully turning and facing Lilly again. "I would put a chocolate bar on a surface, press a button, then the teleporter would break the bar up into millions of little tiny pieces…and all of it would be sent to a TV screen. All you would have to do is reach out and take it."

Lilly raised an eyebrow. "Through the TV?"

Willy looked exasperated. "Don't you read the news, darling?" Then he walked past her and to a group of approaching Oompa-Loompas. He knelt down to hear them better, and Lilly put her ear to the large safe-like door. She couldn't hear anything, to her sarcastic surprise.

Willy stood up and looked at Lilly. "The lights are going to be fixed soon."

Lilly looked over at him. "What about the…teleporter?"

Willy looked at the Oompa-Loompas over his shoulder. They shrugged and left. "Well…they're…going to fix the lights. And…oh, the _teleporter_! It's…um…."

Lilly was surprised to see Willy actually look as if he were about to cry.

"It's doomed."

Lilly made a face and pressed her ear to the door again. "What happened, exactly?"

Willy stood next to her. "You see…if someone goes in there without safety glasses, their eyes get burned right out of their sockets."

Lilly stared at him.

"So…there was an accident…I think one of the Oompa-Loompas had cardiac arrest or something…and aimed the teleporter at the door, see. So…the inner half of the door is currently on display on American channels 10 through 14 and on BBC 2 and 5, in case you wanted to see what it looked like."

Lilly and Willy stood there for a while, just staring at each other…then they both burst out into laugh spasms.

"How did you—" Lily tried to stop laughing, for fear of suffocation, but when Willy fell over, she started laughing again. "How do you come _up_ with that!"

Willy shook his head, laughing hysterically. He couldn't—nor did he try to—stand up. He just sat there, covering his face with his hat, and laughing himself to .

Lilly ended up tripping on Willy's walking staff, since it was strewn on the ground next to them. She fell and landed across his lap, still laughing.

"Miss Lilly," Willy giggled, nudging the side of her head again. "I do believe you're…magnetically attracted to the floor."

Lilly sighed, slowly ceasing her laughter. When Willy ceased his, she sat up and cleared her throat. "Sorry, Willy."

Willy looked at her, suddenly very quiet. "It's not a problem, Lilly."

Lilly smiled softly at him and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

There was a few moments' silence, and Willy murmured, "Hi."

"Hi."

Willy put his hat back on, not taking his eyes away from Lilly's. "Well…we found out what the problem is." He cleared his throat. "I believe I promised you a 'date'."

Lilly nodded slowly, but she reached up and took Willy's hat off. She held it in her left hand as she used her right hand to steady herself. She leaned in and kissed him.

Conveniently, they were sitting on a platform that slowly lowered into the floor, and when it came back up, the two were gone.


	6. Fireflies:Stars

**Okay...HERE IS THE CHAPTER I LOVE THE MOST! w00t! Yep. And...HOHmigawd you guys were so nice to me y'all get a BONUS chapter! So this is really Chapter 6/7. Enjoy!**

**-TIdVS

* * *

**

When Lilly and Willy were kids, of course there was a growing belief in the notion that girls had cooties and boys had…well, whatever the male version of cooties was. So there was never a time when it was 'okay' for a girl and a boy to be best friends. At Lilly and Willy's school, there was never a pair of kids—each one opposite gender to the other—that would play with each other at break time. There was always 'Suzie and Mary,' 'Bobby and Andy.'

But there was 'Lilly and Willy.'

Not only did those two practically wear a huge target sign on their clothes because of their rhyming names…but they were obviously each opposite gender to the other. So…the invisible target on their clothes was ten times bigger than it was before.

Another strange thing about these two were the fact that neither of their parents knew the other existed. Lilly's parents have never heard of Willy in relation to their daughter, and Willy's father had never heard of _Lilly_ in relation to their _son_ (let's put aside the fact that Willy's father had never heard of Lilly, period).

But those two were still best friends. They would play together at break time, and every once in a while, they would go hunting for fireflies at night.

The thing Lilly liked about Willy was that he was a generally sweet person. When they became closer friends, closer to the time he left, he would always call her 'Lilly Lonka.' Willy seemed to be the only person who could call her that.

"Look at that firefly, Lilly Lonka," Willy would call to her, almost unintelligible through all the metal around his face. "It's as big as a house!"

Lilly would look away from the flower she was examining to glance at the firefly Willy was calling about. "It's not _that_ big, Silly."

"It's bigger than the others, that's for sure!"

At this, Lilly would frown and look inside the glass jar filled with tiny glowing fireflies. Then she would look at the 'enormous' firefly. "I don't see a difference, Willy."

Willy would roll his eyes and mutter, "Girls."

He would always get a playful punch from Lilly.

That was their firefly routine. They would do that every time they looked for fireflies. Lilly would never understand what Willy was talking about.

Until Willy left.

* * *

"Look," Willy whispered to Lilly, nudging her on the shoulder gently. "Look out the window, Lilly." 

Lilly opened her eyes and raised her eyes slightly, gazing out of the window. The moon was out and almost full, yet there was still a sliver of a shadow hiding part of it. She squinted to see better at what Willy was pointing to, and then she saw it.

"It's a firefly," she sighed, smiling. She rested her head back on the pillow.

"It's not just any firefly," Willy said, his hand on Lilly's shoulder. He continued to gaze at the pulsating glow of the flying insect. "It's as big as a house."

Lilly looked around at Willy, and she was still smiling. She seemed tired, however. "I don't see a difference, Willy."

He looked at her as she said this, but then he pointed to the outside world again. "What do you mean? Look at the firefly."

Lilly did.

"Then look at the stars."

Lilly did this, too.

"Do you see a difference now?"

As Lilly kept looking between the firefly and the stars, she realized with a jolt that she had finally understood everything Willy had told her as a kid. She understood what he meant by saying the firefly was as big as a house.

"They're all bigger in comparison," Willy continued. "All the others. The stars. If you look at a firefly up close, then look at the stars, which one seems smaller to you?"

Lilly stayed silent for a moment, and then she slowly sat up. She stayed on the bed for a while, not looking at Willy. She was too amazed to speak.

Willy let her think for several minutes, and he sat up, too, when Lilly walked over to the window, keeping a blanket around her.

"The stars...from here…make the firefly as a big as a house."

Willy nodded slowly, and then saw the reflection of her face in the window. She had tears running down her cheeks.

"I never understood that."

Willy smiled. "I know."

* * *

**By the way...do I need to put a disclaimer? O.o If so...I own only the people you don't recognize. If you've never seen/read any of the Willy Wonka movies...first of all, you suck...second...then apparently to you I own everything. o.o **


	7. Parents

Around sixty days later Willy walked into the candy field and saw Lilly there, lying on her back in the grass, nibbling on a candy lily. Her free arm was being used as her pillow. When he walked over to her, she looked up. Neither of them smiled; it was as if both of them were afraid that something would happen if they smiled.

"You're running out of candy lilies," Willy said quietly, tapping his walking staff on the ground. He gestured towards the candy lily patch, which was, indeed, becoming scarce. He tried to ignore Lilly's stomach, which was starting to develop a rounder shape to it; it was still just barely a bump.

He ended up closing his eyes instead.

Lilly sat up and stretched. "You can make more, can't you?"

Willy nodded, his eyes still closed.

Lilly sighed and tilted her head to one side. "Willy…I would appreciate it if you could talk to me about this. I know for a fact that you're not comfortable with how it turned out two months ago. And the fact that you're still not looking me in the eye…is really starting to hurt."

Willy opened his eyes finally and sat down next to her. He looked at his lap, fidgeting with his walking staff. He opened his mouth to speak several times, and then closed it. He did this once more, then he actually said something.

"I'm just scared."

Lilly gave him a concerned look. "Why, Willy? It'll be alright."

Willy shook his head. "No, it won't. My father was never the best father to me, and I just know I'll never be the best father to…." He pointed to Lilly's stomach vaguely. "I'm not…even going to try, really."

Lilly frowned. "So basically you're saying that you want nothing to do with this baby?"

Willy bit his lip and hid his eyes with his hat. "I just…I'm sorry, Lilly. I never meant to let this happen like this." He could sense the look on her face, and he hastily changed his wording. "I…I want to be in your life."

Lilly rubbed her eyes. "Okay. The first moment I came back over here telling you I'm pregnant, you were about to throw yourself in your own vat of chocolate; you were so excited. Then, you run around the factory in a near raging fit and end up barely killing about five of your Oompa-Loompas because you were so upset about this. Then you end up spending an hour and a half in the _air_ in your flying elevator, _thinking_ about this. Then, just now, you come and tell me you're not ready to be a father. And _currently_ you're telling me that you're okay with it."

Willy winced.

"Can you make up your mind, please? I have no idea what to do with myself."

There was a silence, and then Willy sighed heavily. "I told you…all I'd do as a father would be to make sure the child doesn't run off and kill itself. I'm not fit to be a…a…." He swallowed. "A…."

"What do you mean, 'I'm not fit to be a parent'? You…you've seem to have forgotten a few names here. Let's see…Violet Beauregard, Charlie Bucket, Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, and Mike Teavee." She paused. "I even did those in alphabetical order for you!"

"If you haven't noticed," Willy said, sitting up a little straighter, "those five kids ended up very badly. Except for Charlie Bucket."

Lilly sat on her knees and looked Willy in the face. "And as much as those other four deserved it, what have you done to Charlie? What were you like to him?"

"…An uncle?"

"NO!" Lilly all but shouted. "You…were like…his _father_, Willy. He appreciated you the same way he appreciated his own father, if not a _little_ less, given the fact that you're not his biological father unless you have something to tell me."

There was a silence.

"Are you kidding me?" Willy said, lifting his head to look Lilly in the eye.

Lilly took a deep breath and buried her hands in her face for a moment. Then she looked up at Willy, her eyebrows raised. "What do you want? What do you want me to do? If you're really not 'fit' to father this child, there's an option of giving it up for adoption."

Willy stood up slowly stood up and sighed. "I…need to think about this."

"You've been thinking about it for two months, Willy," Lilly said in a tone that almost reached the point of pleading. "I…personally…I want to be a mother."

Willy turned his back to her, his head down.

"And I've often hoped that the father would be you."

Willy lifted his head up at this, and he turned around.

But Lilly was already gone.


	8. Willy Junior?

**I...hope the lack of reviews meant that y'all were on the _edge_ of your _seats_ waiting for the next chapter...

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**

That would've happened had Willy said he wasn't fit to be a parent. And that was how Lilly was sure things were going to end up.

But things didn't end up like that.

Willy sighed heavily. "I told you…all I'd do as a father would be to make sure the child doesn't run off and kill itself." He stayed silent for a moment, and then looked up at Lilly. "But…I'm willing to give it a try."

Lilly beamed and threw her arms around Willy's neck. "Thank you so much, Willy," she said into his shoulder, and the two of them fell backwards in the grass.

"You'll be a great father, I promise," Lilly said quietly, kissing Willy on the cheek by his ear.

Willy looked at the ceiling. "Lilly," he muttered. "I don't think that promise was one you can keep…."

Lilly looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "You can name it."

Willy suddenly seemed very confident. "I was thinking Willy Junior—if it was a boy—or Libby if it was a girl."

"I like Libby," Lilly said, propping herself up on her elbows and looking down at Willy, "but Willy _Junior_?" She raised an eyebrow. "Why Willy _Junior_?"

"Because," Willy said, once again with the air of obviousness. "It would be rather confusing if we were to call him Willy _Senior_, which, if you hadn't noticed, would be me."


	9. Candy Proposal

**I am sooooo sorry that I haven't updated in a while...I have been el mucho busy-o. Yeah. And sidenote: Today's my birthday! Whooooo! But anyways. Oh, by the way. Love my word "triple-took." Tres coolios.

* * *

**

"Willy…." Lilly glanced at the newspaper in her hand more than once. She triple-took.

"Yeah, sweets?" Willy walked into the Invention room, wielding a shaving razor and a towel. He looked at Lilly and raised his eyebrows.

Lilly, however, raised one eyebrow slowly. "Since when start—let alone needed—to shave your face, Willy?"

Willy looked at her for a moment, and then he frowned. "I'm not shaving myself, Lilly. I'm…helping an Oompa-Loompa." He grinned slyly. "I'm getting paid."

Lilly smirked, placing a hand on her seven-months-pregnant stomach. "As if you need more money." Then she caught sight of the newspaper again. "Oh…Willy, dear god, why on earth am I on the front cover of the newspaper?"

Willy frowned and walked over to her, reading the newspaper over her shoulder. "Ahh. '**Wonka and Wonka Expecting First Child**.' Just ignore that stuff, Lilly."

Lilly looked at him incredulously. "First of all, we're not married. Second of all…." She pointed to the newspaper underneath the first headline.

"Uhh. '**Nearby Policeman Inquires, "Since When Did Wonka Have A Girlfriend?"**'" Willy looked at Lilly as if he had just insulted her. He was afraid to look her in the eye. "Erm…I need to go finish…."

Willy got two feet away, but Lilly grabbed Willy's arm, pulled him back to her, and kissed him. Then she turned him around, smacked him once on the behind, and said, "Go; time is money, and you're a Wonka!"

Willy jumped and ran out, giggling.

Lilly grinned and turned back to her newspaper. She was about to open it and read what was on the inside (not surprisingly, more tabloid tales about her and Willy) when she heard a quiet ringing coming from somewhere in the back of the room.

Lilly frowned, carefully setting the newspaper on the floor. When she stood back up, she walked over to where she believed the ringing to be coming from.

There was a bright purple phone on a metal table against the back wall, and apparently, it was ringing. It seemed like an urgent call, too.

Lilly scratched her head a little bit, and then picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

"…Lillian!"

Lilly nearly dropped the phone. "_Mother_!"

There was a loud shriek at the other end, leaving Lilly no further doubt that the woman was, in fact, her mother. "I'll be written into the Gospel! How on _earth_ did you end up at the champagne shop!"

Lilly frowned and dropped her voice to a quieter level. "Mom," she murmured, holding the phone between her ear and her shoulder and grabbing a strip of the peeling wallpaper. She grabbed a pencil from her pocket. "What number did you call?"

She told her.

"Good grief," Lilly said, writing the number down and looking at it. "You called the wrong number, Mom."

There was a brief silence. "Where are you, Lillian?"

Lilly slowly raised an eyebrow and ran her words into one: "Wonkachoclahfacteree."

"What? Speak up, dear, I can't hear you!"

Lilly looked over her shoulder and stared at Willy, who suddenly ran at full speed past the room, trying to keep his hat on. Turning back around, Lilly blinked. "The um…." She rubbed the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. "The Wonka Factory, Mom."

"The W—!" There was a sudden gasp. "ARE YOU THE LILLY IN THE NEWS?"

"Mother!" Lilly snapped. "God! What is your problem!" She rubbed her forehead. "Where's Dad? I know he's there with you, because you wouldn't be ordering _champagne_ otherwise."

"Oh no you don't!" Mrs. Redwood shrieked. "I want to have a word with you about this! How _dare_ you go and get yourself in this kind of situation!" There was an unidentified voice in the background, then Mrs. Redwood spoke again. "Who's the father!"

Wondering exactly which newspaper and/or news program her mother watched for her _not_ to know, Lilly suddenly turned very red. She stared at the door to the room, swallowing. "Erm…you…won't appreciate this."

Suddenly, a male's voice appeared at the other end. "Lillian, honey, your mother passed out."

Lilly smacked her forehead. "Dad…."

"Tell me who the father is, sweetheart, please?"

Lilly bent over and rested her forehead on the metal table, sighing heavily. "It's…Daddy, the father is Willy Wonka."

The silence that followed was so profound; it seemed to have needed to be censored. Lilly was growing very anxious and didn't like the suspense her father was putting her through.

"Dad?"

"I'm here, sweetie. I'm just thinking about this."

Lilly sighed and stood up straight, not at all noticing the fact that Willy had walked over to the doorway and leaned against it, listening in silently.

"I'm sorry if I disappointed you, Dad," Lilly said into the phone. "I really am."

"I'm not disappointed at all."

"I didn't just meet him…whether you knew it or not, Willy was my best friend in the entire world when I was younger…."

"…According to my recollection, he would have been your only friend as a child."

Lilly suddenly covered her eyes with her hand and slowly started to cry. She preferred not to have heard nor remembered this fact.

Willy frowned slightly, not sure whether to be worried about what was going on or not. He couldn't hear what was going on at the other end of the phone call.

"Lilly?" Mr. Redwood said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Dad. I'm just…yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"How're you doing, honey? Are you happy?"

Lilly sniffed and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Actually, very much so. I'm very happy. I love Willy very much, and…I'm glad to be here with him…."

"I'm glad, sweetheart. Your mother is, too. She's currently out cold, but I'm pretty sure she's happy for you."

"Thanks, Daddy."

"I'm going to remember this number, alright? I want to check on you every so often."

Lilly read her father the number she had written down, said good-bye, and hung up.

"You know," Willy said softly, looking at his hat in his hands and causing Lilly to jump a little, "I wanted to wait for a while before I did this. I figured, you know; wait until after Willy Jr. was born. But…I realize now that I don't want to wait any more." He looked up at her. "I'm very impatient."

Lilly gawked at Willy as he held his hat out at arm's length, dropped something into it, cleared his throat, and threw the hat across the room at Lilly. When she caught it in midair, the thing that was inside it was tossed upwards. She caught that, too, and gasped. She dropped the hat shortly afterwards.

"I just finished it today. Actually, more like just now. The um…the diamond is actually Never-Melting, Never-Crumble, Cherry-Tinted-Water Flavored Rock Candy…it's…my latest invention."

Lilly couldn't stop gazing at the brilliant ring in her hand. It was as if it had been made from magic. The large jewel in the middle was, in fact, a Rock Candy diamond.

She looked up at Willy, who was walking towards her, smiling. "Are you…are you…?"

Willy stopped in front of her and leaned on the walking staff. "If you're attempting to say, 'Are you proposing to me with a ring that I can eat if I wanted to'…." He put his right hand on the back of his own head. "…Then yes. I am."

Lilly found herself doing what she almost always did nowadays; wiping away tears from her eyes. "I don't know what to say, Willy."

Willy grimaced. "Well…you're options are pretty small. Yes…or no."

Lilly smiled, then put the ring on her left hand ring finger. She wrapped her arms around Willy's middle, resting her chin on his chest. "In that case, yes. I will marry you, William Weston Wonka."

Willy beamed. "Oh, good!" He took his hat back and put it on Lilly. He was still grinning. "Now you won't be Lilly Lonka. You'll be Lilly Wonka." He seemed to lose his smile a bit, and he said quietly, "You're going to lose my nickname for you." He said even quieter, "And you used my middle name." Then he said, so quiet only Lilly, who was right up against him, could hear, "And my first one."

Lilly giggled. "Sorry."


	10. Coat Buttons

**You guys made me cry! Thank you for the nice comments, guys, I really appreciate it. It's always good to have a good word or two about your most prized possessions to make one's day much better. And thanks for the birthday comment, NerdyForWonkaNerds. I like y'all so much I just might continue the story. ;D

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**

"I'm thinking of hiring a choir."

"A choir?" Lilly queried, licking her fingers after just finishing off a bag of Candy-Coated Chocolate Coat Buttons (Willy's new invention, she proudly remembered). "For what?" It hit her. "Oh, Willy. Not the wedding…and what choir?"

Willy put his hat on and almost did a dance in front of the floor-length mirror in the Candymaster bedroom. He thought better of it and really _did_ a dance in front of it. "The Oompa-Loompas sing rather well, in fact."

Lilly actually laughed. "Don't think I don't know this! Point being…." She trailed off when she felt a twinge in her stomach. She looked down and frowned, causing Willy to turn and wonder what the problem was.

He paled. "Oh dear," he murmured, swaying a bit, "is she in labor? Will I have to…comfort her?"

Lilly shook her head. "No. 'Willy Jr.' is kicking me."

Willy walked over to Lilly and tapped her stomach very lightly with the walking staff. "Stoppit in there," he demanded, as if the unborn baby could actually understand and obey his command. Lilly laughed again. "You're disturbing…quite frankly, me."

"Willy," Lilly said quietly, brushing his cheek with the knuckle on her index finger. "You have the most amazing blue eyes I have ever seen."

Willy raised an eyebrow. "What do you want?"

"More Coat Buttons."

"You're friggin' pregnant, aren't you?"

* * *

**Ooh that was a quick edit right there.**


	11. Purple Dress:Libby

**I have returned to confuse you all! Muahahaha! Bonus chapter right after this one my friend. Actually..._in_ this one. Yeah, figure out. And NerdyforWonkaNerds, I read one of your stories, but my computer won't let me review it. I loved it :D

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**

There was a major silence as Lilly stood in front of the dress she was to wear at her wedding. The silence was not one of a good feeling; it was one of confusion and slight horror.

"You're honestly NOT expecting me to wear a PURPLE wedding dress!"

Willy—who was standing in the corner of the room and secretly trying on a pair of red velvet gloves—jumped a foot in the air at this sudden outburst. He whirled around and hastily hid his hands behind his back. "Well…I always thought purple looked good on you."

"Willy, had I not known better, I would have thought this was _your_ wedding dress at one point!"

Willy turned around and examined the finger-tip-less red velvet gloves; oddly reminiscent of one committing a crime behind someone's back. "I don't wear dresses."

"Often," Lilly muttered under her breath as she took the dress off the hanger and decided she might as well _try_ it on.

"I heard that."

An Oompa-Loompa assisted Lilly by helping her carry the dress into the changing booth; one of the female Oompa-Loompas went in and helped her get the dress on.

Willy looked around to make sure no one was watching him, and he slipped the gloves off and into the inside pocket of his coat.

But then…there was a shriek coming from the changing booth….

* * *

"Premature." 

"PRE-_WHAT_!"

"Willy, please. I need some space here."

"But _DAAAAAAAD_!"

Mr. Wonka stood beside Willy, just staring at him with the expression one would give a grown man whining like a kid. "Get some gloves on. You're about to deliver a baby."

Willy was actually about to turn around and start looking for gloves when something startling occurred to him. "Dad…you're a dentist."

"Willy, _please_, don't make me anxious."

Willy reached into the pocket of his coat, which he discarded onto a chair, and took out a pair of gloves. He put them on and was about to actually start when his father stopped him.

"Whoa! You're not about to bring your child into the world wearing _those_, are you, son?"

Willy blinked and looked at his hands, which were clad in his red velvet finger-tip-less gloves. "Oh crap."

"Just go, Willy, and I'll update you later."

Willy nodded and shuffled out of the room, still gaping stupidly at the gloves.

An hour later, it seemed, Mr. Wonka came out of the room, only to find Willy _still_ staring stupidly at his gloves. This caused Mr. Wonka to blink several times.

"Willy."

Willy jumped and fell off his chair, emitting a mysterious squeak as he landed on his side on the floor.

"Willy," Mr. Wonka said, walking over to his son and rubbing his hands together. When Willy looked up at him, his father sighed. "You're daughter's _very_ premature. The labor might actually have been induced by stress…you two _are_ getting married, aren't you?"

"My…daughter?" was all Willy could muster. "I have a daughter?"

"Lilly said that her name was going to be Libby…is that correct?"

Willy blinked. "Daughter?"

"That's right. Lilly just finished…you can go see her now if you like."

* * *

**Does anyone besides me smell foreshadowing? Well, of course I do, I'm the author. Watch as I run into a wall...**


	12. Flowered Gun

**Sidenote: I wrote this entire story in less than two days. Or maybe a little more than two...anyway. I wrote it over the summer. It's been burning a hole in my desk (I had printed out the whole thing. 82 freakin' pages, people! _82_!) and after much internal conflict, I decided to post it here.**

**Enough about Yet Love is Sweeter's life story.

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**

Unbeknownst to the Wonkas and Soon-To-Be-Wonka, there had slight brawl between George Barnes and a man by the name of Curtis in the florist's shop. It was more of a verbal brawl than an actual one, however.

"Where is she? I know you know where she is, Barnes."

George shook his head, leaning on the registry counter. "I'm afraid I can't tell you where she is. It's confidential. Besides…if you really wanted to know where she is, look in any newspaper in town; it'll tell you."

Curtis pulled out an obviously fake gun from his pocket and pointed it at George's head.

George raised an eyebrow. "Nice floral pattern on the gun, there. Did you paint it yourself?"

Curtis narrowed his eyes and pulled the trigger. A cork shot out of it and smacked George on the forehead hard enough to cause an amusing sound, but not hard enough to do any damage. George restrained himself from laughing by biting his lips.

Curtis shook the gun. "Gosh darn it! I'll go find her myself, then!"

As he stormed out of the shop, he grabbed a bouquet of carnations out of a cart near the window. Then he left.

"Hey," George called out, laughing. "Those are five pounds, man!" Then he fell over, disappearing behind the counter and shrieking with laughter.

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**Is it just me, or are the chapters getting shorter...?**


	13. So Obvious

**You poor people...since these following few chapters are so short, I'm going to be posting them consecutively-like. I had no idea each chapter was so short...see, it was one long document on my loverly Word thing, and the only thing I did to separate the chapters was to press "Enter" a few times...**

**Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. X.x Bad TIdVS.

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**

Curtis Redwood threw the bouquet of carnations into the middle of the street, not breaking his steady stride. He hastily pocketed the flowered gun and clenched his fists angrily. His rage was beyond recognition, and he had to refrain from kicking random people in the street. He was never exactly fond of , so he had no idea why he was acting this way.

Suddenly, Curtis stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. His halt was so abrupt that people who were walking behind him ran smack into him.

"Sorry," Curtis muttered to the people who were walking around him, disoriented. He didn't take his eyes off of what he was staring at; it was a blatant sign.

There was a huge factory at the end of town, the smoke curling indifferently upwards. This was _so_ obvious.

Curtis broke out into an extremely fast sprint towards the factory.


	14. Hello, My Beautiful

**I'm getting very confused.

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**

"I hope this doesn't affect our wedding," Lilly sighed, running her hands through her hair and stretching. She looked at Willy, who was staring oddly into the incubator beside Lilly's bed. She frowned. "Willy?"

"Daughter?"

"Good Lord, Willy…you're not going to ever get over the fact that Libby is not Willy Junior, are you?"

"I wanted a SON!" Willy shrieked, waking the baby. He suddenly looked frantic and waved his hands at Libby. "Shh! Shh…you don't want to scream like that! It's making me nervous!"

Lilly covered her mouth with her hand, watching with sheer amusement as Willy attempted to quiet Libby down by shaking the walking staff. It rattled—much to Lilly's confusion—and slowly the baby stopped crying and instead gazed up at Willy, her bright blue eyes opened widely.

Willy fell silent as well, looking his daughter in the eye. His hands were still up, and he blinked slowly.

Lilly sat up, suddenly alert when the room became silent.

As Willy watched Libby make adorable baby noises, the expression on his face went from fear to loving admiration. He did not take his eyes away from the infant, and when she reached her tiny arms out to him, he smiled softly.

Lilly made no movement nor sound as Willy reached his finger into the incubator. Libby's little hand clasped around the tip of his finger, and Willy's eyes filled with tears. He gently shook his finger, as if he were giving Libby a handshake. He felt the softness of his daughter's palm, because he was still wearing the finger-tip-less gloves.

Lilly's eyes filled with tears, too, and she still made no motion, not wanting to break this powerful bond that was forming right before her eyes.

"When given the hand of your little girl," Willy sang quietly, "you know you let her shine. Hello, my beautiful, you sang to me before you knew…just how much you mean to me…how much I mean to you…."

Lilly looked at her lap to prevent herself from drawing any attention.

This action from Lilly wasn't necessary, since an Oompa-Loompa came in and tugged at Willy's coat. Willy seemed to have snapped out of a trance, and he turned around, his finger still being held on to by Libby. He bent over a bit to hear the Oompa-Loompa. Then he nodded and frowned, sending the Oompa-Loompa away.

"What's going on?" Lilly asked, startled at her voice, which was hoarse all of a sudden.

"Someone's here."

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**((TIdVS taps the microphone a few times)) Um...is this thing on? Oh...erm...yeah, I wrote that little song/poem thing...in less than two minutes CAN I HEAR A LOUD ROUND OF APPLAUSE!**


	15. Curtis Redwood

**This may be one of the longest chapters. And one of the funniest. And the confusing. And...yeah.

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**

Curtis paced back and forth on the red carpet, growling to himself. He was still trying to figure out exactly why he was so angry; it wasn't unapparent, given the fact that his short red hair was fussed up, and his shirt wasn't tucked in. The tie he had been wearing was also undone…he looked as if he was either back from a fight or just plain batty.

When he heard a voice echoing down the long hall, he turned around.

"State your name, please."

Curtis crossed his arms furiously. "What does it matter to you, Disembodied Voice!"

There was a silence. "I would like it if you didn't yell…someone is attempting to sleep. Although…this is the complete opposite side of the factory. Still, shut up."

Curtis took a step towards the darker end of the hallway—the voice was coming from there—and said angrily, "Who are you to tell me to shut up?"

To Curtis's shock, someone actually came out of the darkness, wielding a cane and wearing a top hat. The man looked amused. "Your worst nightmare," he said mockingly, for he had flashed a huge, perfect smile. He stopped in front of Curtis and frowned. "Why do you look familiar?"

"Well, if I look anything like _her_," Curtis snapped, "then I gosh darn well should."

Willy was silent for so long Curtis thought he fell asleep standing up. Then, he spoke. "Look like whom?"

Curtis was about to kick him, but turned around at the last minute and kicked a by-standing Oompa-Loompa. Willy raised an eyebrow as Curtis turned back around and the victimized Oompa-Loompa flew across the room. "My name is Curtis Redwood," Curtis said.

Willy jolted at the sound of the last name, and he stared at Curtis with wide eyes. "Redwood?"

"That's right."

"So…."

"What is _your_ name, first?"

Willy opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. He put his hand over his own face. "Willy Wonka."

"Okay, so _you're_ the one my sister is with."

"I was afraid that was going to be your next sentence," Willy murmured through his fingers, leaning on the walking staff for support. "Oh god…."

"Willy?"

Curtis looked over Willy's shoulder as Willy turned around. Lilly was standing just inside the shadows, but her outline could be seen. Her hair was down, and Willy realized that he never knew how long her hair was, exactly. Nor was it relevant to anything at all.

"Lilly…" Willy said nervously, "why aren't you sleeping?"

Lilly leaned against the wall and frowned. "Who's that?"

Curtis made to shove Willy out of the way and go towards his sister, but Willy was quicker than him. He stuck his walking staff out in front of Curtis's feet and sent him flying. Curtis, however, grabbed the sleeve of Willy's coat and yanked it off him in a double attempt to pull him down, too, and keep himself up. Neither succeeded; although the coat _did_ slip off of Willy, and it landed over Curtis, blanketing him.

Willy looked as if he had just been raided of all clothing, although it was just his coat. He stared at the covered form of Curtis with wide eyes.

Lilly's eyebrows flew upwards as she gawked at Willy.

Willy made an unintelligible noise, standing there in a patterned dress shirt and black vest over that. The sleeves of the patterned shirt were rolled up to the elbows.

"Interesting," Lilly murmured, catching sight of a small tattoo on Willy's right arm. "When did you get that?"

Willy moved his arm so the tattoo could no longer be seen. "What are you talking about?"

"The tattoo. I saw it."

"I don't have a tattoo."

"Willy…."

"I don't."

"Don't lie to me, Willy…."

"I don't want to talk about it."

This silenced Lilly.

Curtis, however, finally moved. He lifted his head, and his face could be seen underneath Willy's coat. "Lilly," he cried, standing up with the speed of one about to run for their life. "Lilly, it's me! It's your brother!"

There was a very uncomfortable silence…then Lilly screamed at the top of her lungs.

Willy merely closed his eyes.

Curtis looked confused. "What's the matter?"

"You can't be here!"

Willy opened one eye and looked at Curtis.

Curtis still looked confused. "What are you talking about, aren't you happy to see me?"

"NO!"

Without knowing it, Willy and Curtis both gained identical looks of bewilderment. Curtis took a step towards Lilly. "Come on…you don't miss me?"

"Oh yeah," Lilly bellowed, stepping out of the darkness, "I sure missed a betraying psychopath!"

"What are you _talking_ about?"

Lilly shook her head, causing her long auburn hair to fall into her eyes. "I know what you're doing, Curtis. You really have no clue, do you?"

"What is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with _you_," Lilly said, taking a few threatening steps towards the taller man, "is that you should have stayed in that institution where you belonged. You're not ready to be released. I can see that by the fact that you have a FLOWERED GUN holstered in your pocket!"

"It's…not real…."

"What were you planning on doing with it?" Suddenly, Lilly turned ghostly pale. "You were going to shoot someone, weren't you?"

"No!" Curtis shook his head as if he was being wrongly accused of something. "I would never…!"

"Who was it, Curtis?"

Willy looked from Lilly to Curtis and back again, feeling as if he was watching a tennis match that he just walked into. He had no flying idea of what was going on.

"You can't marry him, Lilly."

_This_ brought Willy back to earth. "Um, excuse me!" he called, raising his hand. "I beg to differ, sir!"

Curtis whirled around, suddenly looking quite manic. "Shut up, you!"

Lilly suddenly struck Curtis with unbelievable strength on the back of the head. Her brother was sent to the floor, and he landed right at Willy's feet.

"Do me a favor," Lilly said to Willy breathlessly. "Keep him down, but don't hurt him."

Willy raised his walking staff and put it on the middle of Curtis's back, still looking rather confused. He didn't apply pressure, yet he kept him pinned down.

"I need to call my father."

When Lilly left, Willy noticed her posture; it seemed as if she was in some physical pain.

"Wonka," Curtis spat, looking up at his captor. "I'll get you, you know that."

Willy raised an eyebrow. "No, I don't think I know that."

"You should."

"But I don't."

"I just told you."

"Did you?"

Curtis made a face. "Let me go."

Willy grinned wickedly. "I was told to keep you down, you weird little monster," he said brightly. "And I'm going to keep you down. I'm not letting you go."

Lilly came back a few minutes later. "I sent an Oompa-Loompa out to call my dad…." She stopped walking for a minute and sort of crouched down, holding the sides of her face in her hands. She groaned a little.

Willy blinked. "Are you alright?"

Lilly waved a hand dismissively and nodded. "I'm just…yeah, I'm alright. I guess I should've stayed in bed."

Curtis tried to turn his head to look at his sister. "I'm telling you, Lillian, you can't marry him! He's CRAZY!"

Lilly stood up slowly. "I can't wait to hear this. How is he crazy, dear Irony?"

"Didn't you _hear_? Those kids! He destroyed them all!"

A new fire burned in Willy's eyes as Curtis shouted those words. "How dare you say such a thing," he whispered darkly.

Lilly gasped. "Curtis…you can't possibly believe that…."

Willy applied a tiny bit of pressure into the walking staff. "What did you say I did, Redwood?"

Lilly knew he was talking to Curtis, but the way Willy said her last name stung, only a little.

"You destroyed them! You loathed them, everyone knew that!"

"I loathed them, yes, but I would never _destroy_ them! If you hadn't noticed, I made sure every one of those little brutes made it out of the factory in one piece."

This gained an odd look from Lilly.

"And also, in case you haven't noticed," Willy said, "I have a child of my own. So that statement is pure—"

"Lilly!"

Everybody looked behind Willy, and Lilly's father was standing in the doorway to the factory, looking around at the scene.

"Oh god," Willy muttered under his breath.

But suddenly, and magnified about a hundred times, a loud scream was heard from somewhere up in the ceiling.

Willy and Lilly gave each other frantic looks.

"Who's going to go get her?" Lilly asked, turning white again.

"I'll do it," Willy said, letting Curtis go and running as fast as he can out of the hallway. Curtis tried to trip him, but again, this didn't work, and Willy slapped his hand with the staff.

Wondering exactly how fast it took for the Oompa-Loompas to install the baby monitors in every single room of the factory, Willy took a sharp turn at the Chocolate River and took a flying leap into the glass elevator. He hit the wall with his head.

"Ow," he groaned, reaching up and pressing a newly installed button that said**LIBBY** in big letters. The elevator took off to where Libby was.

Then, Willy realized in horror that if Libby was hungry…there wasn't exactly much he could do about that….

Contemplating why he was the one to volunteer to 'rescue' his daughter, Willy sat there, hugging his knees and repeatedly hitting his head on them.


	16. Unwell:Children

Later that night, after Lilly's dad had briefly visited and took Curtis away, and long after Willy tried to find alternatives to cause Libby to stop crying, Lilly almost _crawled_ into the Candymaster bedroom. She entered the room to find Willy sitting in a rocking arm chair, holding the overly tiny Libby on his lap. He was talking to her as well.

"You need to grow. You're a little too small." He smiled when Libby—she had Willy's right index finger in her hands—brought his finger up to her mouth and suckled on it. "What, you think my finger's going to make you grow? You're pretty smart for a baby that's only a day old…I would've never thought someone your age would know how to attack someone's finger." He giggled.

Lilly stood up and ran into the doorway, knocking herself into the other end of the doorway. She slid down it, rubbing her forehead several times.

Willy looked up from Libby and his smiled faded. "Lilly?"

"I'm alright…I just…."

Willy carefully gathered Libby into his arms and stood up. "No, you're not alright…you're not yourself."

"William, I'm fine!"

Willy's eyebrows shot up. "What did you call me?"

"Sorry…I'm sorry, Liam. I'm just tired."

Willy gasped and almost fell over. He jabbed his finger in Lilly's direction. "You called me Liam!"

"What?" Lilly said vaguely, looking up and narrowing her eyes at Willy. "No. No, I didn't. I called you by your name."

"No…I distinctly heard you call me Liam." He frowned concernedly. "Are you sure you're alright? You're…you're…."

"Mind saying it today?" Lilly said curtly, holding her forehead on her fists.

"You're scaring me."

Lilly looked up for moment, and then laughed, leaning her head back on the doorframe. "Get out of here. I'm _scaring_ you? I'm scaring _you_? You're never scared, Will…."

Willy carefully placed Libby on the bed; he was afraid he was going to drop her, he was starting to shake. "Lilly…I need to get you some help…."

"Don't you dare!" Lilly cried, standing up and backing out into the hallway. She hit the wall and stood there, pointing to Willy, and she shook her head furiously.

Suddenly Willy noticed that Lilly's hair was damp, and she was paper-white. All he could do was stand there and stare.

"You're not getting help for me. I don't need help."

"Lilly…you're sick."

Lilly shook her head and almost fell forward. She was shaking. "No, I'm not. I feel fine."

Libby started crying, and Willy looked back at her, really frightened by now. Lilly groaned, and Willy looked at her again. Then suddenly, he sprang forward and caught her, just as she was about to fall over. He made a frightened noise and looked frantically around for anybody.

"Guys!" he called in a strangulated voice, referring to the Oompa-Loompas. "Guys…please…."

Between Libby crying and Lilly fading in and out of consciousness, Willy made another terrified noise and started to hyperventilate. "Lilly," he moaned, trying to gently shake her awake. "Lilly…please…wake up…."

When she went limp in his arms, Willy nearly dropped her. "GUYS!" he shouted again. "H—"

He didn't get the second word out, and because of two reasons. The first reason was because he heard a dozens of tiny footsteps making their way to where he was.

The second reason was that Lilly stopped breathing.

* * *

**Oh snap, y'all...I'm re-reading this as if I didn't write this at all...it's getting a bit cheesy...stay with me...

* * *

**

Willy walked outside, not caring that he didn't have a warmer coat on. The snow fell from the sky, and it seemed to miss him.

Lilly was being quarantined.

Willy reached the gate and rested his forehead against it. He probably should've proposed sooner, he figured. Perhaps this wouldn't have happened. An Oompa-Loompa guessed it was because she gave birth too early, and yet another one suggested it was because she was stressed out for some reason or another.

Willy didn't know what to think, exactly. This was a nightmare to him.

He was so in a daze, he didn't see a little boy standing in front of him.

"Mr. Wonka…."

Willy looked up at this, and he found himself staring right into the face of Charlie Bucket.

The two were very silent, and things were made quieter because of the snow. Even though no words were spoken, they both knew that they were feeling the same thing.

Charlie coughed once and looked back at Willy. "Your factory isn't doing anything," he said, pointing to the smokeless factory.

Willy didn't say a word, but instead set his focus on the snow on Charlie's shoes.

"I heard about her," Charlie said quietly, rubbing his hands to keep them warm. He didn't have any gloves on. "I convinced my family to come back here for a while. I also…." He coughed again. "I also brought friends."

Willy looked up at Charlie and gripped the iron bars of the gate. "Who?" he asked softly.

Charlie turned around and called out into the silence, "It's okay!"

Willy frowned a little, but when the people Charlie brought with him emerged from where they were taking temporary shelter, Willy took a startled step backwards.

"It's not much," Charlie said, "but at least we'll keep you company while Miss Redwood's being cured. And…they've learned to behave themselves. Trust me."

"Mr. Wonka," a little girl with blonde hair said, running up to the bars of the gate. "I'm serious when I say that I missed you."

Willy noticed with a smirk that Violet Beauregarde was still chewing that piece of gum. Chewing, chewing, chewing….

"Daddy," Willy heard someone say a little further away, "can I stay here until everyone else leaves? Can I stay here _forever_?"

"No, Veruca. You can stay until everyone else leaves, but no longer than that."

Veruca Salt approached the gate beside Violet. She seemed to have matured mentally (which, as Willy found himself thinking, is almost as significant as it would be for it to stop snowing in England for just two seconds). "Good evening, Mr. Wonka."

"Not so good," Charlie said softly to them, and both girls gained a very (genuinely, even) sympathetic look.

"Mr. Wonka," said a deeper voice, and Willy looked behind Violet and saw a boy standing there. He almost didn't recognize him because he didn't have a chocolate bar or any form of candy in his hands, and he was much slimmer than he was when he last saw him. Plus, his accent was almost intelligible. "I still loff your chocolate."

This caused Violet, Veruca, and Charlie to laugh. Willy laughed, too.

"Hello, Augustus," Willy said (his first words in several minutes), and held his hand out to the German boy.

Augustus reached forward and gave Willy's hand a hearty shake.

Suddenly, Willy felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He looked to his right and saw a very tall boy standing there, smiling.

"Wow," Willy said, standing back. "You're not as tall as you were when you left here, Mike."

Mike Teavee—who was indeed tall for his age, yet not exactly a beanstalk—nodded and kept his hands behind his back. "Thank you, sir. And you're probably wondering how I got past the gate. Well, I maneuvered my body exactly so I could slip through between the bars."

Willy nodded vaguely, and looked out at everyone. Violet's mom was here, as was Charlie's mum and dad. His grandfather was here, too. And even Mr. and Mrs. Salt. Mrs. Gloop was standing proudly behind her son, and she, too, had lost some weight. Mike's mum and dad were there also.

"Why are you all here?"

Everyone surprisingly fell silent.

"We heard about Lilly Redwood," Mrs. Gloop interjected, her English having improved quite a bit as well. "You love her very much, it seems."

Willy nodded and looked up, letting a few snowflakes fall on his face softly. He looked at Mike Teavee, his head still up, and he caught the expression on his face.

"What?" Willy asked, his voice nasally as if he were getting a stuffy nose.

Mike shook his head. "It's just…strange to think that you're a father."

Willy smiled. "I know. I have a hard time accepting that, too."

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

Willy turned around and called out, "Open the gates!"

The gates opened up a little quicker than usual, knocking Willy into the snow. They stopped moving, though, when he hit the ground.

Charlie rushed forward. "Are you okay?"

Willy looked up, nodding. "Yep. I just…ow…that was a nasty hit…."

* * *

**...I told you it was cheesy. Hopefully...you're still with me...((pokes the knocked-out readers with a stick))**


	17. Delusion

**Ahhhh NerdyForWonkaNerds, you're awesome. Here's the update you wanted!**

**By the way, this chapter ends funny. But there's a good reason, trust me. (And if anyone else is reading this, let me know. Just say hi or something.)

* * *

**

"So, how long have you two been married, Mr. Wonka?" Violet asked, still chomping away mercilessly at her gum.

The question startled Willy so badly that he almost went head-first into the Chocolate River. "Erm…we're…." He sighed through his nose and directed everyone to the glass elevator, which was conveniently large enough to fit everyone.

"A little _too_ convenient," Willy murmured in the slightly cramped elevator, turning towards the button marked Hospital. "I could've sworn this elevator was much smaller last time I was in it…." He pressed the button and they immediately zoomed to the hospital. When Willy stepped out of the elevator, however, he stopped, frozen on the spot.

Curtis Redwood was standing in front of him, pointing a very flowered gun in his face.

Willy heard everyone gasp behind him, and he held his arms out to stop anybody from moving. "Okay, Curtis,"he said quietly, swallowing. "Is that a fake gun?"

"I don't know, but I really want to find out."

"Get away from him!" Charlie snapped. "He did nothing to you!"

Willy closed his eyes. "Charlie…please…shut up."

Charlie closed his mouth, but he was still scowling.

Willy quickly stepped into the glass elevator and slammed the door shut, just as Curtis pulled the trigger.

A cork was shot out of it and it hit the glass with an amusing smacking sound.

Suddenly, dozens of Oompa-Loompas came out of nowhere and seized Curtis the legs. They literally dragged him out of the room.

* * *

**Uh-oh.**


	18. Lilly Hallucination

That also didn't happen.

As a matter of fact, they were still zooming towards the hospital in the glass elevator when Willy screamed.

Everyone in the elevator expected the entire thing to shatter, but it didn't.

"Mr. Wonka!" Charlie said. "What's wrong?"

Willy blinked and looked at Charlie. "Hm?"

"You screamed."

There was a silence as Willy gained a mystified expression. "I did?"

Everyone nodded.

Willy raised his eyebrows. "Oh. Er…sorry."

They landed lightly in the hospital, and to Willy's relief, there was no sign of Curtis Redwood. He opened the doors and climbed out, then helped everyone else out.

"Just to warn you all," Willy whispered as each person passed him, "if I act like I'm going to smack you with my walking staff… run."

"That was rather unceremonious," Mr. Teavee said as he jumped out of the elevator. "Why would you smack us with your walking staff?"

Willy didn't answer at first, but he walked over to the giant velvet purple curtain, then he pulled it back.

Everyone gasped at once.

Lilly was lying in a bed, hooked up to several tubes. She was ly pale, and there were dark circles surrounding her eyes, her lips were slightly blue, and her breathing seemed to be labored. She did not look alive at all, as a matter of fact.

Everyone simultaneously stared at the heart monitor on the end table beside Lilly. It was beeping every so often.

Willy turned to face everyone. "This is Lilly."

Charlie was the only one who decided to walk over to her, and when he did, he touched her hand gently.

"She's still warm," he said, "but she looks cold."

Willy hid his eyes beneath his hat. "I know."

"What happened to little baby?" Mrs. Gloop asked carefully.

"She's uh…she's…sleeping," Willy muttered quickly, clearing his throat. He was interrupted by a loud screeching noise overhead.

Charlie was saddened to see that Lilly did not respond to this noise in any way.

Willy heard a soft lullaby being sang over the speakers, and the screeching subsided. Then he went over to Lilly and sat on her bed, stroking her hand lightly.

"Should we leave?" Mrs. Beauregarde asked.

"You don't have to," Willy murmured. "You can if you want to."

Charlie grabbed Willy's hand and pulled him off to the other side of the room.

"You're stronger than this," he said quietly, and with a small trace of hope. "I know you are. You're brave, and you can handle her being in this state. She'll make it, I promise."

Willy looked Charlie in the eye. "I don't think you should make a promise you know you can't keep."

There was another scream, and Willy ignored it, thinking it was Libby being heard. But then there was _another_ scream, and it seemed to be coming from somewhere behind him. Charlie and Willy exchanged confused and worried looks.

"WILLY!"

At this, Willy whirled around and shrieked.

Lilly was awake, yet she looked like the walking . She had sat up, and she was tearing out every single tube inserted into her body. She looked over at Willy and spoke as if she hadn't said anything in years.

"Get out."

Willy stood there, horrified at this sudden declaration. "What?"

"Get out of here. I just had the worst nightmare…you have to leave."

"Oh my god," Mrs. Beauregarde exclaimed rather comically. "She's possessed!"

Lilly closed her eyes and turned her head to face Mrs. Beauregarde. She opened her eyes and stared at her as if she had just said the most random thing on the planet. "Who are you?"

"Scared."

"Good enough." Lilly turned back around to face Willy. "You have to leave. If my dream comes true, then you'll be ."

Willy held up his hands. "Wow. Do your dreams come true often?"

There was an uncomfortable silence, and Lilly raised her eyebrows in answer to that question.

"Good point," Willy said hastily.

* * *

**I apologize for confusing you...((walks into a wall))...**


	19. Lilly Wakes Up

Guess what? That didn't happen.

Lilly's wake-up looked actually more like this:

"I don't think you should make a promise you know you can't keep."

Charlie nodded, suddenly saddened. Then Willy screamed again.

"Mr. Wonka…that's the second time you screamed," said Charlie's grandfather.

"What are you talking about," Willy asked, turning around. "I haven't screamed _either_ of those times! I didn'thallucinate _anything_!"

Something caught Willy's eye, though.

Lilly was slowly opening her eyes, and the heart monitor sped up considerably. "I'm not sick, Willy…."

"HALLELUJAH!" screamed Mike Teavee. He danced on the spot, attracting weird looks from everyone, even Lilly, who seemed to have been startled awake by this sudden outburst.

"'Hallelujah' yourself out of the room, if you will, Young Mr. Teavee."

"Yessir Mr. Wonka sir."

* * *

**Bleh, people. **

**Be sure to check out my _Secret Window_ fanfic, Safe Under the Circumstances!**

**...Please?**


	20. Bad Nut

**This Is Da Vinci Speaking - I now have two otehr fanfictions out. Whoa. Make that 'other'. And watch as I advertise myself.**

**Safe Under the Circumstances: Mort has just gone through an interesting process...is he free from Shooter forever? Will he confide everything in the woman who saved his life? MortOC Rated for language...and later scenes.**

**Finding Loompaland: What if everyone was right? What if Loompaland DOESN'T exist? That is exactly what Willy and Charlie are set to find out.**

**Okay, enough of the annoying pop-ups.

* * *

**

"And so, according to the little doctor Oompa-Loompa person," Lilly said to Willy over the intercom/baby monitor, "it wasn't Curtis who got me sick, as you've theorized."

"Darnit!" Willy shouted, in a totally different room on a totally different side of the factory. He was really with Libby in the Candymaster bedroom, feeding her a bottle that Lilly so helpfully provided. Lilly, however, was still in the hospital, and she was actually painting her toenails as she spoke to Willy. "What was it, then, did he tell you?"

Lilly shook the hair out of her eyes. "It actually had to do with…the fact that I had Libby too early," she lied.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah! Can you believe it?"

Willy looked at the little black box his fiancée's voice was coming from. "No, I can't. But I'm just glad you're getting better."

"I'm thinking," Lilly interrupted conversationally, finishing her right foot and starting onto her left one, "that we should probably postpone the wedding until at least Libby turns one."

Willy dropped the bottle, and Libby protested by smacking him on the chest with her foot. "Until she turns…WHY!"

"Because I don't think I'm _all_ the way better yet, don't you think?"

Willy didn't respond, and Lilly looked up at the high ceiling where the black box was hanging.

"Willy?"

"YOU'RE NUTS!" came a voice coming from Lilly's right. She looked, and sure enough, Willy was striding out of the glass elevator, Libby securely in his arms. "Not only are you nuts, but you're a _bad_ nut! Not only are you a _bad_ nut—"

"Remember when we were kids, Willy? I know for a fact that you remember Curtis."

Willy stopped walking and let out the breath he was holding for when he was going to finish the sentence. "Give me an example."

* * *

**Oooh another flashback coming up.**


	21. Bravery:Loser

**Holy dancing monkey's pajamas, guys. Another batch of reviews that made me cry. I love you all!**

**Okay, time for me to shut up for the moment!

* * *

**

A younger Lilly Redwood sat on the front stoop of her house, humming a little song and tapping her feet to it. She was waiting for her very good friend Willy to come around and take her firefly hunting.

"What're you doing, Maggot Head?"

Lilly looked behind her briefly, but then looked back in front of her, rolling her eyes as her older brother Curtis stood there, eating a loaf of bread. "Mom said not to call me Maggot Head," she said quietly and almost half-heartedly. She knew exactly what Curtis was going to say.

He didn't disappoint her. "What Mom doesn't know won't hurt her, right?"

Lilly stood up and jumped down the remaining steps. Curtis stopped mid-chew and called after her, "You're not supposed to leave the house at night, Maggot Head!

As Lilly skipped away, she called over her shoulder, "What Mom doesn't know, won't hurt her, right?"

But Lilly had never disobeyed her mother before. So she ran back to the stoop and sat down, burying her face in her hands as Curtis laughed at her.

"Stop making fun of her," a voice in front of the Redwood house said.

Curtis looked up and saw a scrawny little boy standing there, his arms crossed and an angry look on his metal-covered face.

"Oh look," Curtis spat at Lilly. "Your little boyfriend's here." He rolled his eyes, laughing, and went back inside.

Lilly waited until she heard the door close before she looked up. "Hi, Willy," she said quietly, and she was thankful that it was dark outside, because she found herself blushing for some odd reason.

"Hey, Lilly!" Willy said cheerfully. "You ready to go look for fireflies?"

Lilly nodded, but just as Willy was walking away, she grabbed his arm. "Wait a second," she said. "What's that on your other arm?"

Willy gasped and covered his arms with his sleeves. "Nothing. Just…I accidentally spilled something on my arm. It's not a big deal."

Lilly frowned, but let it go otherwise. They left to go firefly hunting, during which, of course, Willy exclaimed that there was a firefly as big as a house.

* * *

Willy nodded, snapping out of his recollection. "You're right. I do remember him. But only vaguely, because I'd usually attempt to get him away from you. Or you away from him. Or myself…away from him…." 

But Lilly was staring at Willy's arm as if she thought that if she stared hard enough, she could see through his sleeve. "I want you to tell me what that is."

Willy looked at his arm, then up at Lilly. She was staring at him intently, and he knew that this was it. She had a right to know by now.

Since Willy had his arms free (he had given Libby to Lilly at some point during their mutual flashback), he sighed and stretched his arms. Then he took a deep breath and rolled back his right sleeve.

Lilly craned her neck a little to see better…but she suddenly wished she hadn't.

The marking on his arm was that of a grungy, haphazard, black circle with a line through it. Beside it said **LOSER**.

"Willy," Lilly said in a strangulated voice. "What is that?"

"It's my little identification stamp," Willy said, abhorrence in his voice. "When I was seven, some older kids thought it would be funny to give 'Weird Willy' a tattoo." He gazed at the permanent marking on his arm, the loathing in his expression melting into misery. "'He's too young to know. Too stupid,'" he whispered, remembering with painful accuracy the quotes he had heard the thirteen-year-old bullies snicker to each other as they pinned him to ground, wielding the ink-filled needle.

"Oh, Willy," Lilly said, her eyes filling with tears. The times she'd been with Willy—the times she _should_ have seen the tattoo—she had noticed nothing. Her feeling of guilt rammed head-on with a feeling of relief. She was guilty of never noticing something so prominent; yet relieved that it had taken her this long to see it. The collision of emotions only confused her. "I…." she stopped herself from crying and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."

Willy rolled his sleeve back down and promptly walked out of the room.

* * *

**...Oh dear. Usually...when the last two paragraphs are longer than any in the chapter...that usually means the author had to make a very quick and steady edit. Erm...I'll explain where and why I edited it a little later.**

**Oh, by the way, we're about to jump very far ahead, so buckle yer seatbelts an' hold on tight! ((crashes))**


	22. Twins?

**So sorry for the delay! I've been busy writing the next few chapters to Finding Loompaland. Anyways, you deserve less talk from me, so here it is!

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**

"I don't understand it, Lillian," Lilly's dad said to her over the phone. "Libby's almost three now. You've waited TOO long! Are you two going to have this wedding or not?"

Lilly ran a hand through her now black hair. "You know, I'm going through the _hardest_ time of my life, Dad, so just give me a freakin' minute, alright!" She dropped the phone and strode out of the Invention Room, rolling the sleeves of her maternity shirt.

She sidestepped Libby, who was running back and forth through the hallway, screaming her head off. She was having the time of her life, apparently.

"Be careful, Libby, you're gonna hurt yourself," Lilly said as she passed. "WILLY!"

Willy poked his head out of a room in the hallway. "Yes?"

"Oh," Lilly said, stopping. "Sorry."

Willy's eye twitched and his gaze landed on Lilly's stomach. "It's alright, honey, what did you want?"

"We need to talk."

Willy fell out of the room and on his back.

Lilly's eyes widened. "I'm not breaking up with you, if that's what you're spazzing about…."

Willy grinned sheepishly. "Of course not." He stood up and dusted his coat off. "I'm guessing, then, you wanted to talk about this so-called wedding."

Lilly nodded and walked into the room where Willy was building a giant teddy bear out of chocolate for Libby. "I have my dad on the phone. He wants to know when."

Willy put his goggles back on and started climbing the ladder to get to the teddy bear's unfinished ear. "When the twins are born."

"Willy," Lilly said, crossing her arms over her obviously pregnant stomach. "I'm starting to think you don't want to get married."

"MUMBLER!" Willy screamed suddenly, not looking away from the chocolate ear. He stayed silent for a minute. "Besides, I wouldn't have proposed to you if I didn't want to get married."

Lilly frowned. "At this rate, I won't be able to _fit_ in my wedding dress!"

Willy looked over at her and frowned as well. "I'm sorry; I couldn't understand that because you were _mumbling_."

"You're so juvenile!" Lilly said, stomping her foot like a child and walking out of the room. She almost ran into Libby, but running into her was out of the question because Libby threw herself at her mother's feet and hugged her legs.

"I love you, Mommy," she said, flashing her two-year-old smile.

Lilly looked down at Libby and sighed, giving up. She might as well wait until the twins were born. Fighting with Willy seemed almost unfair to Libby.


	23. Brooke and Blaise

**>:( It's fast-paced for a reason. I know what I'm doing.**

**This chapter's a little gorey. Well...not...gorey as much as it has a few gross details. Grow up and get used to it, I say.

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**

"I can't do this!"

"Yes you can," Willy muttered, making sure his goggles were securely fastened to his head as he shuffled into the room, shaking from head to foot. "My dad isn't here, so…you're going to have to…cooperate with me here."

"Willy," Lilly screamed, "I'm going to kill you!"

"I'm getting that a lot lately," Willy said, slipping a pair of rubber gloves on his trembling hands. "It's rather making me feel bad."

Lilly covered her face with her hands and refused to open her eyes. "This is your fault…why did you make me eat that…that STUFF you were going to sell to women who wanted twins!"

Willy froze. "You ate that stuff?"

Lilly threw her pillow at Willy. "Shut up and help me out, here! If you want to be the father of these children, I suggest you get your behind over here!"

Willy hurried over to Lilly and swallowed. "Um…you're doing alright."

Lilly sat up. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're doing alright!"

"Mommy?"

Willy and Lilly looked over to the door of the hospital room, and Libby was standing there, looking a little confused. She was tugging her light brown hair and frowning.

Willy looked at Lilly. "Erm…."

"Get her out of here," Lilly said, wincing and laying back on the bed.

Willy shuffled over to Libby and picked her up. "Your mommy's alright, Lovely. She's just…about to kill me."

Libby patted the top of her father's head. "Mommy loves you."

Willy almost scoffed. "I know. Not right now she doesn't."

"WILLY!"

Willy set Libby down outside of the hospital and kissed her on the forehead. Then he hurried back into the room with Lilly.

"Oh god," Willy shrieked, standing two feet away from Lilly. "I can see the head."

Lilly tugged at her own hair. "Stop being stupid and help me!"

"What the heck am I supposed to do, exactly! I can't make this go any faster!"

Lilly reached out and grabbed the front of Willy's shirt. She yanked him down so that they were face-to-face. Her voice was low, yet dangerous."Give me chocolate or someone dies."

Willy nodded vigorously and looked at the intercom thing. "All Oompa-Loompas report to the hospital room with as much chocolate as you can carry. And bring a _lot_ of it." He thought for a minute. "And bring Rum Cubes, too!"

Lilly burst into tears all of a sudden, and Willy rushed back over to her, approaching just as the first of the twins were born.

"This is good," Willy said reassuringly, taking the first baby and cleaning it off, but not before making sure nothing was still attached.

Dozens of Oompa-Loompas appeared in the hospital room, from the glass elevator and not, all with armfuls of chocolate.

Two Oompa-Loompas brought Willy some Rum Cubes.

"Thank you, Jesus!" he cried, taking one and popping it into his mouth.

The doctor Oompa-Loompa went over to help Lilly and another one went over and held her hand and wiped her forehead off with a cloth.

Four minutes later, the last of the twins were born.

Willy had passed out on another hospital bed, having eaten too many Rum Cubes.

The Oompa-Loompa who was comforting Lilly went over to Willy and screamed in his face.

"OH MY GOD!" Willy screeched, sitting up really fast. "What're their names?"

"Twin A and Twin B," Lilly said sarcastically.

Willy raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously though. Luke and Leia. That was a joke, too!"

"You have no idea, do you?"

"Not a clue!"

Willy frowned and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How about…they're fraternal, right?"

"Yes."

Willy thought back for a moment at a time when Willy and Lilly were kids, and they had found two rabbits nesting by Willy's house. They named the rabbits Fire and Water.

"How about Blaze and Brooke?"

Lilly slowly looked up at Willy. "You're dedicating their existence to a pair of rabbits that we found by your house when we were kids?"

"They were _Fire_ and_ Water_. They're different names."

"What happened to our pattern of two double consonants?"

Willy sighed. "You can tell me how to spell the names, how about that?"

"Alright. Blaze…B-L-A-I-S-E. Blaise. Brooke…B-R-O-O-Q-U-E. Brooque."

"Are you serious? Brooque? Spelled like that? Are you nuts?"

"Okay, fine. B-R-O-O-K-E. How about that?"

"That works, Lilly." Willy frowned. "Which one's which?"

Lilly rolled her eyes. "Obviously, the girl is Brooke."

"And the boy?"

"What other names did we pick, Willy?"

"Ah yes. The boy's Blaise. How could you forget what names we picked?"

Lilly smacked him on the head, laughing.

"Hey, Lovely!" Willy called out to the hallway where Libby was. "Come in here and see your brother and sister!"

Libby came skipping into the room, squealing with excitement. "What're the names, Daddy?"

"Blooke and Braise. Erm…Brooke and Blaise."

"Book and Base?"

"Close enough." Willy hoisted Libby onto the bed with her mom and dad and the twins. "See? Aren't they cute?"

Libby kind of stared at Brooke and Blaise for a while. She tilted her head to one side slowly, and then tilted her head to the other side, apparently contemplating their existance.

"I don't like them."

Willy sputtered, and Lilly's jaw dropped. "What?"

"They're not cute. I don't like them."

There was a loud cacophony of groans as the Oompa-Loompas hurriedly made their way out of the room, not wanting to be there at this moment.

"You have no choice, Libby," Lilly said calmly. "They're your brother and sister."

"Put them back."

Lilly looked as if she was going to say something, but Willy grabbed Libby around the waist and held her under one of his arms as he exited the room quickly.

"You don't want to anger your mother, Lovely," Willy said to a giggling Libby. "She can stab a metal bear with her words when she's angry."

"Is that bad?"

Willy stopped walking in the hallway and looked at his daughter. "Do you know how extreme your mom's emotions can become?"

Libby shook her head, picking at a small scab on her hand as she gazed up at her father.

Willy set her down, handed her his walking staff, and lowered the sleeve of his right shoulder, where an ominous-looking bite mark was present right on the crook connecting his neck and his shoulder. "And that hurt a lot."

Libby's eyes widened. "Mommy bit you?"

Willy blinked and suddenly realized what he was showing a two-year-old. "Erm…yeah…she…no…she made an Oompa-Loompa bite me." He grimaced and covered the mark quickly, standing up and taking the staff. "Anyways, she's not pretty when she's being emotional." He looked half embarrassed, half nervous, and he picked Libby up again and held her under his arm. "We shall journey to the chocolate teddy bear."

Libby clapped.

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**Just a bit of nonsense with the names.**


	24. Unwanted Inferno

**Y'all are...really not gonna like me for this chapter...

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**

What happened six months later was nowhere near expected. Nor was it respected.

"Come on, Lovely," Willy said standing in the large doorway to the factory, holding his free hand out for Libby to take. She grabbed his hand through her mitten-clad hand. "Wait…" he murmured, hearing footsteps coming quickly in his direction.

Lilly came running towards him, waving her hands. "Guess what?" she chimed.

Willy looked up at her. "What?"

Lilly smiled. "I love you." She kissed him. "And you know what else?"

"What?" Willy said, smiling a little.

"You've never, in your entire life, told me that you love me."

This caused Willy to blink a few hundred times. "Are you serious? I've never?"

Lilly nodded, keeping her arms wrapped around Willy's neck. She didn't seem angry or anything. As a matter of fact, she was grinning brightly, and she was looking right into his eyes. Willy found this a bit odd, but shrugged it aside. Ever since Libby was born, she'd been acting oddly at random times.

"Well," Lilly said, kissing him again briefly on the lips. "I'm waiting…."

Willy smiled and ignored the strange feeling tugging at the back of his mind. "I love you," he whispered.

Lilly kissed him again, this time a bit harder.

"I love you so much," Willy said. "And I'll tell you how much I love you when we get back."

Lilly nodded and stroked Libby's hair softly. "Have fun, guys."

Just then, an Oompa-Loompa came out, pushing a baby carriage big enough to fit two six-month-olds. It was an odd sort of contraption, as it was as tall as a normal carriage, yet the handlebars of it were lowered so the Oompa-Loompa could push it easier.

"You got it okay, there?" Willy asked the Oompa-Loompa. "Do you need any help?"

The Oompa-Loompa shook his head and made a hand gesture that Willy understood as, "Don't you worry about a thing, Mr. Wonka. I've got it."

Yet Willy still could not exactly push aside the uncomfortable feeling tugging at the back of his mind. He felt sad a little…but he was not sure why. He _was_, in fact, worried about something…but he couldn't put his finger on it. Everything was alright; Lilly had gotten sick again after the twins were born, but she had gotten much better since then. So what was the matter?

When Willy, Libby, and the Oompa-Loompa reached the gate, they stopped, and Willy reached into the carriage, taking each twin out one at a time and setting them carefully in the snow by the bars.

By then, the feeling at the back of Willy's mind had grown to be a mysterious depression. He leaned against the iron gate by Libby, who was playing in the snow with the twins. He leaned his head back against the gate, and he had a perfect view of the upper area of the factory.

This turned out to be a bad thing.

He was trying so hard to identify the feeling that he didn't notice the smoke rising from the factory pipes had turned exceedingly blacker.

It wasn't until he heard Libby shrieking that he fully registered what was going on….

The factory was on fire.

It had erupted into flames that left as quickly as it came. Willy wasn't bothered by this as much considering the fire had been in only one small section of the factory….

One small section….

The section that….

He had just come out of….

"NO!" Willy suddenly cried, running as fast as he could to the factory. This turned out to be rather difficult, given the fact that there was quite a bit of snow on the ground and he was indeed a man with a cane. "Lilly!"

There was a cry coming from behind him, but he ignored it completely.

"Daddy!" Libby cried, running after him. "Wait!"

"Oh dear," Willy breathed, kicking aside the burnt fragment of the red carpet. "Lilly! Lilly, please answer me…."

Suddenly, a large piece of the ceiling down the hall came down, fast, and landing right beneath where it fell…a next to something that looked solid.

"Please, someone pinch me; bruise me to make this a dream…" Willy murmured, inching his way towards the solid object. He could hear Libby running in behind him. "Lovely, no…stay back there…."

"But daddy!"

"STAY BACK THERE!"

Libby did as she was told, still wringing her hands and crying. Her father had _never_ raised his voice at her like that before…that scared her even more. Something bad was definitely happening, and she didn't want to know what it was.

Willy didn't know what to think. He made his way closer to the thing on the floor, and he was slowly disappearing into the darkness. Libby could no longer see him.

Libby, who was no tugging her hair mercilessly, softly cried out, "Daddy?" He was still gone, so she tried a little louder. "Daddy?"

There was a silence. Then, out of nowhere, Willy's walking staff and hat came sliding out of the darkness and shot towards Libby. They stopped right at her feet.

Libby picked up the hat and put it on her head, then sat down, sobbing into her knees. She could hear, very clearly at the other end of the hall, her daddy. He was making a strange sound; almost as if he was trying really hard not to scream, yet not sure whether he should.

Libby knew, with a tiring sadness she could not describe from her quickly developing three-year-old brain, that the last memory she would ever have of her mom was one of her hugging her dad.

"Why did you have to follow me," Willy whispered, torment apparent in his voice. He held Lilly's body close to him, and he stared at her face, not bothering to notice the fact that it wasn't burned or black at all. "You should have stayed back, Lilly Lonka. I was going to tell you I loved you." He shook his head, tears streaming down his face despite his determination to stay calm. "I'm never going to forgive myself for never telling you I loved you…and I love you so much…."

He lay next to Lilly and fell asleep, never letting go of her hand the entire time.

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**...eep...**


	25. A Grave Mistake

**EGADS! Are you guys realizing what I'm realizing as I slowly uncover this story from the depths of the My Documents folder? ((dusts the story off)) It ain't _that_ old, okay? Point is...you guessed it. This story is nearing (but not yet at)...**

**The end.

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**

"So…I guess the factory's closed then, huh?"

"Second time around. Probably last."

George Barnes bit his lips and covered his face with his hands. "Oh my god," he muttered. "This is really, really getting to me."

The man standing beside George patted his shoulder comfortingly. "It's okay. If anything, this town will be more peaceful…one less person to worry about."

George looked up at the man with an incredulous look. "Who _are_ you?"

"Just a concerned citizen." He adjusted the overly large sunglasses that nearly covered half his face. "I guess since he's gone, there won't be any more candy, eh?"

George blinked. "Him?"

The man looked at him. "Yes. Wonka. Willy…the one who died."

George stood up straight. "Willy wasn't the one who died, sir."

There was a very large silence, and the slight smirk on the other man's face dropped right off his face and crashed on the floor. "I beg your pardon?"

"Lilly was the one who died…."

The man turned very, _very_ pale. "Oh?"

"Yes."

For a second, George thought the man was going to throw up. "I should go…." He left quickly, not looking back at the store.

Once Curtis's feet hit the sidewalk outside, he threw the sunglasses off his face and strode very quickly towards the factory….

But he stopped in his tracks.

His sister was gone.

Why was he even going to the factory? A mistake had been made…and the mistake was perhaps unforgivable…so there probably _was_ a reason to be heading towards the factory….

He broke into a sprint.

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**((Plays Old Western music in the background))**


	26. Severance:Epilogue

**As you've guessed from the title of this chapter...

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**

"Dearly beloved…."

"Dad, this is not a wedding," Willy murmured to his father standing next to him, not looking up from the snowy ground.

"It should be," Dr. Wonka hissed back. He cleared his throat. "DEARLY BELOVED! We gather here today to witness the end of a terrible tragedy…and the beginning…." He paused for dramatic effect. "Of a wonderful afterlife."

"Now what is that supposed to mean?" Willy asked.

"Will you hush," Dr. Wonka snapped in a low voice. "For today, we witness the burial of a Mrs. Lilly Wonka."

"Miss Lilly Redwood," Willy corrected aloud.

"Soon-To-Be Mrs. Wonka," Willy's dad said to the small gathering of people in front of them.

"Never actually settled the date…."

"That was to be settled in the very near future…."

Willy turned to his father. "Doesn't exactly matter…."

Dr. Wonka turned to his son. "Actually, it really should…."

"Not apparent how…."

"Mother of three children…."

"Three beloved children…."

"Three _fatherless_ children…."

"I'm not the deceased one here, Dad…."

"Well, you should be!"

This received a few startled gasps from the crowd gathered to see Lilly's burial. Willy stared at his father, raised the staff, and waved it in his face. He was about to say something, yet was overcome by a number of emotions, and he stormed back into the factory, slamming the door shut as hard as he could behind him.

The silence from everyone was incredible.

Libby walked calmly up to her grandfather through the tiny crowd, which parted to create a path for her.

Dr. Wonka looked tiredly down at her. "You know I didn't mean that, Libby."

Libby frowned and went after her father, throwing her grandfather a dirty look over her shoulder.

But suddenly, she stopped walking, and while everyone including Dr. Wonka was watching her, she turned to him, pointed one shaking finger, and screamed.

Willy's father closed his eyes and clenched his fists. "Libby…."

"No!" Libby screamed, crouching once. "You…." She was cut off by her own shrieking and she ran into the factory, yelling something incomprehensible. Her voice was muffled and distant as the door shut behind her.

Dr. Wonka turned to look at everyone.

"What on Earth was that all about, Wilbur?"

Willy's father looked as if he was about to say something, but then he turned pale. "I'm closing my business," he murmured as he strode quickly away from everyone.

But several things happened at once.

Curtis Redwood came running up to the crowd, running headlong into Dr. Wonka. Once he recognized who it was that he ran into, Curtis grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up, giving him a very livid scowl. "I cannot believe this," he spat. "You're worthless and a traitor."

Dr. Wonka looked positively frightened out of his mind. "I didn't—"

"I'm afraid you did," a voice rang out from behind everyone. In the doorway of the factory stood Willy, and he looked…rather lethal.

As a matter of fact, Willy looked _very_ lethal as he made his way very slowly towards his father. There was another heavy silence, as everyone's eyes were on Willy. His head was tilted low, causing an opaque shadow across his eyes from the hat. His walk was deliberate; every other step, he swung the walking staff in a full circle.

He stopped in front of his dad—Curtis had set him down—and he grinned, looking up and letting his father see the fire flashing in his eyes.

"I was just told," he whispered loathingly, stretching his left hand and looking at his purple glove in an almost villainous way, "that I'm currently standing very near the person who…took away the life of my best friend…and my lover."

He looked at Curtis. When Willy stepped over to stand in front of him, Curtis gained a panicky look. Willy pointed the purple glove-clad index finger of his left hand right in front of his nose.

"Don't touch my father," he said simply.

Curtis nodded and swallowed, perspiration beading on his upper lip. "Y-yessir."

Willy then stepped over to his father.

He struck him hard across the face with the walking staff.

Everyone gasped, and Curtis stepped aside, watching as Willy turned, only his profile visible as he ed the knuckles of his right hand and looked at his father with a very hurt and disgusted look.

"I don't ever want to see your face on my property again, Wilbur," he whispered. Then he disappeared into his factory, leaving the entire crowd to gawk at Dr. Wonka in disbelief, and Curtis to take him away from the factory, somehow very stunned; yet he had expected this event to happen once Willy found out the truth….

His father had killed Lilly.

* * *

Twelve midnight and Willy sat on the steps leading up to his factory, staring across the open and empty space at the closed casket. He knew very well what was inside the coffin, yet as he sat there and stared at it, he felt as if he were disrespecting it in some way. 

"I should…probably bury that thing, shouldn't I?" he muttered into the silence of the night, his breath against the cold air creating a thick vapor in front of his face.

"It would help a bit."

Willy nodded and gnawed slightly on his bottom lip, not moving from his spot on the stairs. "Should I do it…now? Or…can I wait? It's a little…upsetting."

"Whatever you feel like doing."

Willy sat in silence for a moment, and then he looked behind him to make sure nobody was awake. When he looked back at the casket, he sighed. "I'm going to do it now. I don't want to look at it anymore…."

"Do you need help?"

"No."

"You sure?"

Willy bit the tip of the middle finger of his right-hand glove and pulled it off. He did the same with his left one. "Yes," he said, taking his hat off and keeping the left glove between his teeth. He took the glove and tossed it aside. "I don't have a shovel…."

"There's one by the coffin."

"Right."

Willy got up and walked over to the coffin, bending over to pick up the shovel. When he came back up, his bangs—which were actually long enough now to be called layers (over the course of events, he'd forgotten all about his semi-annual haircut)—fell into his face. He looked at the steps, and he sighed at the young woman who was talking to him sitting down, her arms hugging her knees. Her own long black hair was in her face. She looked back at him, tilting her head ever so slightly.

Willy smiled softly, and then began to dig.

**Yet Love is Sweeter.**

**

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**

**Okay, people. Time for what you've been waiting for. Questions...and answers. Oyesh. These are a few questions my friends outside of FFN have asked me about the story, and following them are the answers I've given them (or close to).**

**_Why is it so convenient that Willy happened to be in the Flower Shop when Lilly was there at the beginning? _That's because Willy and George had set up a date after Willy ambled (shockingly) into the Flower Shop one day. They'd had a conversation, and Willy happened to bring up the subject of Lilly. From there, they set up one of the days Lilly was usually at the shop. Hence why Willy called out a thank-you to George in the first chapter.**

**_Why does Willy hallucinate a lot? _What are you talking about? He hasn't hallucinated any of those times!**

**_What was Lilly talking about when she yelled at Curtis about not deserving to be released from the institution? _I believe that's going to be explained in...A SPIN-OFF! Oh yes. A spin-off.**

**_What was Willy's tattoo originally of? _I was afraid of that...okay. It was originally supposed to be a little symbol thing, but I discovered that having Willy be branded by Neo-Nazis with their symbol of acceptance was...a tad too dramatic...so I changed it at the last minute to the LOSER thing.**

**_Why was it Willy's father?_ That will be explained...**

**_Why was the story so quick?_ Well. Because there's going to be a lot of flashbacks...**

**_Flashbacks?_ Yes. There are going to be a lot of flashbacks...in the sequel. :D**

**_Who WAS that young woman Willy was talking to at the end_? Well...**

**What Was Once A Beautiful Thing is coming soon.**


	27. Soundtrack List

**YET LOVE IS SWEETER**

**The Soundtrack**

**(Shut up, you.)**

**1. Main Titles (From the _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ soundtrack)**

**2. Beautiful Day (By U2)**

**3. I Still Believe (By Lionel Richie)**

**4. Andy, You're a Star (By The Killers)**

**5. You Found Me (By Kelly Clarkson)**

**6. By Myself (By Linkin Park)**

**7. Gunning Down Romance (By Savage Garden)**

**8. Incomplete (By Backstreet Boys)**

**9. Cold (By Crossfade)**

**10. Like A Prayer (By Madonna)**

**11. We Belong (By Pat Benatar)**

**12. Missing (By Evanescence)**

**13. The Golden Ticket/Factory (From the _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ soundtrack)**

**14. Chocolate Explorers (From the _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ soundtrack)**

**15. Song for the Lonely (By Cher)

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**

A very interesting choice of music, but somehow, it works. At least to me it does. ((blink)) I own none of the aforementioned music. So there.


End file.
